


What We Are (And How We Hate It)

by thepalemoonlight



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Thriller, the boys find they aren't human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 39,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepalemoonlight/pseuds/thepalemoonlight
Summary: Alex, Jack, Rian, and Zack are high school juniors, and they have a relatively normal life. Until one night, when they discover they're not quite as human as they thought.As they struggle to control their new-found powers and keep everyone safe from themselves, a new danger emerges in town. Murders left and right leave everyone terrified of who'll be next, and the All Time Low boys realize that if they want to keep people safe, they'll have to deal with this new danger by themselves.Will they be able to rise to the occasion and fend them off, or will their inexperience catch up with them and cause their downfall?
Relationships: Alex Gaskarth & Zack Merrick, Alex Gaskarth/Lisa Ruocco, Jack Barakat & Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat & Rian Dawson, Rian Dawson & Alex Gaskarth, Rian Dawson & Zack Merrick
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

February 2005. It’s a cold winter day and the group of best friends stay huddled in the house together. Jack’s mom brings them hot chocolate, then leaves to let them continue on with the band meeting.

They don’t need to continue on with the meeting–the topic of conversation had changed about half an hour ago–but no one wants to go home yet. Their parents wouldn’t need them home for hours anyway.

“Do you think your mom would let us stay over for dinner?” Alex asks Jack.

He shrugs.

“You can go ask. I don’t think she’ll care all that much.”

Rian checks the time again. It’s the fourth time he’d done so since the conversation changed. Despite them all being best friends, he never wants to spend more time than he feels he has to with them. The others don’t question it.

“I think I’m gonna head home, guys,” the drummer announces after a moment.

“You sure? If you wait a while my mom will bring us some food.”

Rian shakes his head.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll be alright.”

They exchange some parting words, saying they’ll see him later, and they let him leave. As soon as he left the room, Zack reached into his bag for his book and curled up on Jack’s bed with it.

Before they’re able to busy themselves, yells from the front yard catch their attention and the three of them move to the window to see what’s going on. Rian was trying to shake someone’s dog off his arm, with no luck. WIth no hesitation, the three of them run out to the front yard. Along the way Jack grabs a bat.

Alex and Jack run to Rian while Zack tries to find Jack’s mom. Alex tries to pull the dog’s jaws off of Rian’s arm, to no avail. It’s only when Jack tries to pull the dog away from behind does it let go of Rian’s arm and turns to growl and bite at Jack. In a panic, he swings the bat and hits the dog in the head.

That just makes it angrier.

It lunges at Jack and he hits it again, this time with more force. The dog hits the side of Rian’s car and gets disoriented for a second before running off. He drops the bat and looks over at Rian and Alex. By this time, Zack appears in the doorway with his mom.

“What the hell happened out here?” She asks.

“Some dog just went crazy and attacked me!” Rian says, holding his arm up. Blood drips down from his wound. She puts a hand over her mouth and motions for them to come into the house.

“I’ll call your mom and tell her what happened. Zack, get Rian cleaned up and bandaged.”

With a quiet “yes ma’am” from Zack, the two head off to the bathroom. Jack retrieves the first aid kit for them before going back to the front yard to get the bat. His mother gives him a stern look when he comes back in.

“Did you hit the dog with that?”

“It was crazy, mom! Alex and I tried to make it let go of Rian, but then it tried to attack me!”

She sighs after listening to the explanation and nods. 

“Just put it back please, alright?”

Jack nods and she kisses his head before he can move off. Not that he would’ve rejected it; at school he may not show it, but he’s a complete mama’s boy.

Rian hisses a bit as Zack puts his arm under the cold water. He feels the urge to pull his arm away but he doesn’t.

“Sorry!”

“It’s fine, just a bit of a shock.”

Zack stays quiet for a moment as he dries his arm off and begins to wipe the blood away.

“I can’t believe that dog just lost its mind like that,” he says once he grabs the bandages.

“I know! I want to find its owner and ask what the fuck is wrong with them for letting their dog attack people at random.”

Zack shakes his head.

“If they know their dog is that aggressive, they shouldn’t let it run around like that. If you find the owners, your family should confront them.”

“Trust me, when my mom sees my arm, she will. Moms have a way of finding everything out.”

Zack smiles and nods a bit. A moment later he finishes bandaging up the wound and he sets the bandage back in the kit.

As they turn to leave, Alex appears in the doorway. They see his hands covered in Rian’s blood.

"How much blood could Rian have lost in the fight?" Zack thinks.

They step aside and let Alex wash the blood away, and Rian heads to the kitchen where the others gather.

“Oh, Rian, I called your mom and told her what happened and she’s on her way over with your brother.”

“But I can just drive home,” he says.

“That’s not the point. You know how mothers get: when our children get hurt, we need to make sure they’re alright.”

Almost on cue, Rian’s mom and older brother, Chase, pull up in front of the house. The drummer glances out the window and grabs his keys.

“Thanks for the help, Mrs. Barakat.”

“Of course. Let us know how your arm heals.”

“I will,” he promises. He exchanges goodbyes with his friends once more before heading out to meet his mom and brother.

“I think I should get going,” Alex speaks up.

“Me too.”

“Are you sure you two don’t want to stay over for dinner?”

“I’m sure. I think after what happened, I’m kinda eager to get home,” Alex explains. Zack nods in agreement.

“Okay. Get home safe, you two.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Barakat. Bye Jack,” Zack says, waving to Jack as he heads to the door. Alex does the same and after a couple of minutes, the cars in front of the Barakat house are gone.

On Monday, Jack, Rian, and Alex meet up at school.

“How’s your arm?” Jack asks the drummer. 

Rian looks down at the new bandages his mom applied the night before and shows them.

“It’s healing alright. My mom put some medicine on the bite and changed the bandages. Should be gone in a few days. Maybe a week.” He shut his locker and they start walking to their first period.

“Did you guys have any dreams about what happened over the weekend?”

Jack and Rian look at Alex as he asks his question. They all share a knowing look.

“What makes you say that?” Rian asks. He did have a dream about the dog attack, but he didn’t want to admit it. He’s convinced that there’s a rational explanation for it.

“I—I don’t know. It was just a thought. You don’t have to answer, it’s stupid.”

Alex’s dream runs through his head.

It starts off in darkness. Then he hears a scream; at first he can’t tell who it comes from. It’s not a scream of terror, but one of panic. He realizes that the scream is coming from Rian. And then he can make Rian out in the darkness, and he sees the dog attacking him. Before he knows what he’s doing, Alex runs over and tries to pry the dog’s jaws off of him. The sight and smell of Rian’s blood are all he can focus on, and the dream fades away. When he wakes up, the scent of blood is still fresh in his mind.

Jack’s dream is different. Over the weekend, when he went to sleep, he could see the dog. It still attacks Rian. Alex runs to help him. Jack holds the bat tight in his hands. He doesn’t want to use it but he knows he will. He doesn’t see how it happens, but the dog turns to him, its teeth bared and pure rage in its eyes. He feels afraid and swings the bat. It makes it angrier, so he swings again, this time harder. Jack looks on with horror as the dog hits Rian’s car with a sickening thud and it doesn’t get up again.

In Rian’s dream, it doesn’t play out the way it happened. Instead of being in Jack’s front yard with his car behind him, he and the dog are in a forest. They’re alone, and he has to fight it off on his own. Somehow it feels more like a fist fight between two kids than an animal attacking him. The dream always ends before he can see the outcome of the fight.

The first bell pulls them out of their thoughts and they rush to their desks. They make an unspoken agreement not to talk about the situation until after they meet up with Zack after school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a high school and supernatural AU that I thought would be very interesting to write about. But I do want to say that this is really the first fanfiction I've ever written and I understand that I may not have captured their personalities exactly as they were when they were in high school. I'm also using what information I know about the guys during this time in their lives, but there will be gaps where I will make up information so it can make sense in the story.
> 
> With all that being said, I hope you all enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

Since the dog attack, the band decides to meet at Rian’s house. Jack is the one that pitched the idea; he knows that the dog and its owners are still in his neighborhood and none of them want a repeat of what happened.

The boys all head down to the basement, closing the door on the way. They set their bags aside and sit beside one another. They’d been ignoring the elephant in the room for the past few days. So they make small talk.

“How’s your arm healing?” Alex asks Rian. 

The drummer glances down at his arm and rolls the sleeve up.

“It’s definitely doing a lot better. It’s mostly healed already. Should be almost completely healed in a couple days.”

Alex nods and the room is filled with an awkward silence, each of them feeling the palpable tension in the air. It’s uncomfortable, and they hate it. Rian, Alex, and Jack don’t want to bring up the dreams they’ve been having,

Zack can tell they’re not telling him something, and it hurts him a bit. All four of them are best friends. So why won’t they talk with him about it?

It’s ironic, really. The quietest one of the group being the one that wants to talk about what’s going on. He doesn’t dwell on the thought and gets to the point.

“So are we gonna talk about it, or what?” Zack asks. He’s tired of avoiding the subject.

“What do you want us to say?”

“Anything! As long as we can just talk about it. I mean, it was just a dog attack, right? Why are we so scared to mention it?”

Silence fills the room again. Then Alex speaks up.

“I—I mentioned this a few days ago, but have you guys had any...dreams about what happened?”

He glances at his friends and they all share a knowing look. They know they can’t put off talking about it anymore.

“I have,” Zack says.

“Me too.”

Rian echoes the same thing.

“Do you have them a lot? Ever since that day, I’ve been dreaming about it every night. And it’s never like how it actually happened.”

“Why are they like that?” Jack asks.

They look at him.

“What?”

“The dreams. Why aren’t they like what really happened?”

No one has an answer for that.

“Do you guys wanna talk about them?” Zack asks.

“No. Not really.” Alex shakes his head.

Jack and Rian echo the same. After that, they stop talking about the attack. 

* * *

Zack sighs as he walks out to his car and throws his backpack into the backseat, getting into the driver’s seat. He thought that meeting would go a lot better, maybe more productive. Not with music; they haven’t been able to focus on that for days. He just wanted to find out what was bothering his friends, and then when he did find out, they didn’t want to talk about it.

He supposes he can’t blame them for that. The dog attack appears to be more serious than any of them initially thought. And the dreams they’ve been having seem to be more like nightmares.

His own dream runs through his mind.

Zack stands in Jack’s bathroom and is looking at Rian’s wrist. There seems to be more blood than usual. The scent of the blood starts to become prominent but he doesn’t focus on it; he needs to patch up Rian’s wrist. Zack looks around, but he can’t find the first-aid kit. He places a hand on Rian’s arm, expecting to feel warm blood ooze onto his hand, and he does. For a second. Then when he looks down at the wound, it’s healed, and the blood is gone.

The dream doesn’t make Zack feel scared or worried; it intrigues him more than anything. He can tell, though, the dreams Alex, Jack, and Rian aren’t like that.

It still hurts that they don’t want to tell him, but he pushes that aside. He can’t force them to talk about it, and he isn’t gonna be that friend that’s selfish like that. It’s not who he is. 

He pulls into the driveway of his family’s house and walks inside. Zack greets his parents and heads up to his room. They’re good about giving him his space while also being pretty involved and supportive of him.

Zack shuts the door and drops the bag before he lays back on his bed. During the band meeting, he felt tired. Kind of exhausted. But now he’s more awake than ever. He barely knows how to describe the feeling; it’s more than just being awake.

Then, like he summoned it, something courses through him and leaves him feeling...alive. Like he wasn’t already. He sits up and looks at himself.

_Everything looks normal_ , he thinks.

He looks down at his hands and for a second he thinks he can see something that isn’t there, like sparks coming from his fingertips. But he blinks and whatever it is disappears. 

* * *

Alex grabs his bag as Rian tries to push him and Jack and Zack out the door. The clock hit 5, and now they’re overstaying their welcome. Well, at least according to Rian. He hated them infringing on his time.

He exchanges goodbyes with Jack and Zack and heads to his car. He opens the driver’s side door and is about to step in when a familiar smell hits him.

_What is that?_

He can’t place it yet. It must have taken him a while, because Jack honks his horn and motions for him to drive off. Alex gets inside and moves his car, turning on the radio. The dream lingers in the back of his mind but he does his best not to focus on it, even if finding out why it scares him would do some good.

His phone buzzes and he glances at his bag. Alex pulls over and takes his phone out, smiling as he sees Lisa’s name at the top of the screen. He texts back a quick response and keeps driving, but then his phone buzzes again. He’s nearly home, so he leaves it alone until he arrives.

Alex pulls up and grabs his backpack, rushing inside. He goes straight to his room, not a normal thing for him to do as soon as he gets him, but that isn’t on his mind. He just wants to talk with Lisa in peace.

The next few hours he spends texting with his girlfriend, only taking a break when his mom calls him for dinner. 

Near the end of dinner, before his mom begins to take the plates to the kitchen, she cuts herself with a knife. It’s a small cut, and there isn’t much blood, but Alex can smell it from across the table. Suddenly the scent from Rian’s driveway clicked: it was blood.

“Thanks for dinner, mom,” he says, rushing to his feet. He heads for the stairs when she stops him.

“Alexander.”

He freezes and looks over at her.

“Sorry, but I’ve got tons of homework to do.”

And then he rushes up to his room again. He shuts the door and barricades the door, not wanting anyone to get in. The dream he had made him hate the sight and smell of blood, but that wasn’t what scared him so much. 

What scared him was how his mouth watered when he noticed the blood. 

* * *

Jack refuses to think about the dream. As long as he doesn’t think about it, it can’t haunt him. He won’t let it.

On a normal day, Jack greets his mom with a hug and she kisses his forehead. Today he doesn’t. He’s not in a good headspace and he heads to his room.

His mom notices.

“Jack?” She calls before he can reach his door.

_Fuck._

“Hey, mom.”

“You weren’t going to come home and not say hello to me, were you?”

“It must’ve slipped my mind,” he says.

She knows that’s not true.

“Come here, Jack,” she tells him.

He obliges. She motions for him to sit at the table and he does. She sits beside him.

“Is there something wrong?”

Jack’s quiet for a moment. She reaches for his hand, and after a moment of hesitation, he gives it to her. 

“Tell me what’s wrong. Please.”

“I’ve just—I’ve been having a recurring bad dream the past few nights. I guess it’s bothering me more than I realize.”

“Will you tell me what it’s about?”

Jack hesitates once more. 

“I don’t really want to get into it.”

“I think you should, if it’s making you this upset.”

“Mom, I don’t—”

“Jack Bassam Barakat, I’m your mother. You can tell me anything. You know that. Tell me, please.”

She looks at him with pleading eyes and squeezes his hand. He knows he can’t get out of it and he gives in.

“Essentially, I’m...I have the bat that I used on the dog. And it’s attacking me again. I hit it with the bat and it hits Rian’s car. But each time I have the dream again, I hit it harder and harder. And each time...I enjoy it more and more...like I want to hurt it. And I don’t…,” Jack trails off, pulling his hand away so he can wipe the tears forming in his eyes.

His mom pulls him into a hug and holds him tight.

“Oh honey, it’s okay. It’s just a bad dream.”

_I hope it is._

* * *

Rian shuts the front door once the others leave and goes back to the basement. He grabs his backpack and brings it to his room. In the past few days, he’s been more withdrawn and spending more time by himself, specifically in his room.

It’s difficult not to notice.

He hates to think that the dream is keeping him from doing what he wants, so he convinces himself that he’s staying in more because he wants to. Because he feels tired from going out.

The dream is not making him stay inside and keep people away from him. He just hates when his friends overstay their welcome; that part never changed. He’s always felt that way since they all met. In general, he just doesn’t want to go out to do things. He’s bored with that, he tells himself.

Rian refuses to believe any part of the dream. Lately it's evolved and started to show him hurting not just the dog that attacked him, but people too. He can’t make out anyone he hurts, but he has a good idea that they’re his best friends.

He keeps telling himself all the time he’s spending alone is because he wants to be alone. Not because he’s scared of hurting people. He has to believe that.

He has to.

The others probably wouldn’t understand anyway. Rian’s sure that they aren’t being affected by their dreams. Why is he worrying about his?

Because maybe, deep down, he knows it’s more than just a dream. Maybe he knows that it’s a premonition, and he’ll stop at nothing to make sure that it will never come true.

His phone buzzes and he sees a text from Zack. 

**Zack**  
Has anything weird happened to you since the dreams started?

Rian wants to ignore it, or just change the subject. But he doesn’t.

**Rian**  
No. Are you?

Zack takes a few minutes to respond. A little out of character for him, but he doesn’t dwell on it.

**Zack**  
Not really, guess I’m imagining things.


	3. Chapter 3

The weekend arrives, and the boys gather for yet another band practice. They go to Rian’s house again and the band gathers in the basement. They all seem more on edge but no one wants to bring it up.

Zack is the least on edge, but it’s still clear that something’s bothering him. Meanwhile the other three are slightly more visibly distressed. Jack has noticeable dark circles under his eyes, which he hides with his older sister’s concealer.

Alex and Rian don’t look that much better. For the past few days their dreams have gotten worse, and they wear looks of exhaustion from the lack of sleep.

“Are you guys sure about practice today? You don’t...look up to it,” Zack says. He places a hand on Jack’s shoulder and notices he feels warm. Like, a sickly kind of warm.

“I feel fine,” Rian insists, heading over to his drum set.

“We’ll wake up more when we start playing. Don’t worry about it.”

Zack glances at them and gives them questioning looks. He’d been feeling weird the past few days too, and things were happening to him that he couldn’t explain. But it seems that he got lucky.

“Can we wait a few minutes? I gotta get some cold water.”

His friends shrug it off and he walks upstairs. Rian’s mom is in the room and looks up when he comes up the stairs. He waves and walks into the kitchen, getting the water he needs as well as a washcloth. Then he goes back downstairs.

Jack’s on the couch, laying on his back with his eyes closed. Zack took a seat next to him and got the washcloth wet before he set it on Jack’s forehead. The guitarist opens his eyes and looks at Zack, then closes his eyes again and relaxes. 

Zack smiles down at him and turns his attention to Rian and Alex. The singer’s rubbing his throat, like it hurts, and Rian can’t seem to focus on the meeting. There’s a look in his eyes and he looks like his mind is elsewhere.

“Seriously, we shouldn’t be meeting if you guys don’t feel like yourselves.”

“Zack, I’m fine!” Rian insists. Alex nods and mumbles an agreement. His voice sounds awful and Zack shakes his head.

“Alex can barely speak! And Jack,” he looks down at the other boy and sees how pale he’s become, “he’s clearly not doing well.”

The others want to argue, but after seeing Jack in his current state, they deflate and cave in.

“Fine.”

Zack stands, satisfied, but stops when he feels Jack holding his hand.

“I don’t want to leave,” he mumbles.

The bassist squeezes his hand gently and looks over at the others.

“Can he stay over here tonight? I can call his mom and tell her.”

Rian shrugs and sighs.

“Why don’t you all stay the night?”

“Would your mom be okay with that?” Alex asks softly.

“Yeah, she won’t mind. She already tries to give you guys my food and snacks.”

“Because she’s nice and hospitable,” Zack retorts. Rian shoots him a glare but he’s unfazed.

“I’ll let her know.”

As the drummer stands to head upstairs, Alex and Zack get their phones out and call home. The calls take just a few minutes, their parents giving their permission and telling them to have a good time.

“Need me to call your mom?” Zack asks Jack. The guitarist nods meekly.

“My head’s on fire,” Jack mumbles.

The bassist frowns and makes quick work in getting the phone out and calling his mom. She picks up after a couple of rings.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mrs. Barakat, it’s Zack. Jack’s really not feeling well and Rian’s mom is okay with us staying over, so would it be alright if he stayed the night?”

“He’s not feeling well? Does he feel good enough to talk on the phone for a few minutes?”

Zack hands the phone to Jack and he talks to his mom. He finishes the call and hangs up.

“She’s fine with me staying over.”

“That’s good.”

“Can I have some water?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you a glass.”

“Can you get me one too?” Alex asks, his voice now sounding parched.

“No problem.”

Zack walks upstairs and heads to the kitchen. He grabs two glasses and heads to the sink. Rian’s mom walks past and heads downstairs while Rian follows close behind. He looks worse, more in pain than before.

“Are you feeling alright?” Zack asks him.

“Fine, just some pain in my sides. It’s probably nothing.”

Zack purses his lips and finishes filling the glasses, rushing back down to the basement. Rian’s mom is checking on Jack. Zack hands a glass to Alex, and he begins to chug the drink. That concerns him too.

“It sounds like the two of you are coming down with something. I just can’t tell what it is. I hope it isn’t contagious.”

She moves aside as Zack sits next to Jack, handing him the water. Jack thanks him and takes a sip.

“I’ll go get you some medicine, Jack.”

She heads upstairs and Alex follows, holding the empty glass at his side.

Rian rests against the couch and closes his eyes. He looks worse.

“How much pain are you in?”

“Um, more now.”

“Maybe you should go to the doctor’s.”

He nods.

“I’ll tell my mom when she gets back.”

Alex comes down with another glass of water, and a filled water bottle. His throat must be more sore than he thought.

Rian’s mom comes back down and gives some medicine to each of the boys, except Zack. She stops at Jack last and checks his temperature again. It doesn’t seem to be good.

“Still pretty warm.”

“Should I get some more cold water for him?” Zack asks.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Zack takes a couple minutes to get more water for Jack, and when he comes back down, he sees the guitarist looks a bit better. So does everyone else. He sets the water next to Jack and takes a seat beside him.

“You guys look better.”

“I’m feeling better,” Jack tells him. He tries to sit up but doesn’t make it all the way and he lays back. “Well, I’m not 100% back to normal.”

Zack smiles and looks at Rian and Alex. They seem to be doing better, not in pain.

“I’ll bring down some movies for you to watch and then I’ll get dinner started, alright?”

“Sounds good.”

“Thanks mom."

Zack, Jack, and Alex echo their thanks and get situated near the couch. When she brings the movies, they pick a few of them and put them in. She brings them dinner after a while and Rian picks up after them when they’re done. He grumbles about it the whole time. 

After the second or third movie, Jack starts feeling better and sits up all the way. He takes the washcloth off his forehead and wipes the water away. When he brushes against Zack and Alex, his skin isn’t burning up anymore.

Rian comes back down and he’s holding clothes in his hand. 

“Got some clothes for you guys to change into.”

They mumble their thanks and focus on the screen. When the movie ends, Rian’s mom appears at the top of the stairs. She says goodnight, and they take that as a sign to start wrapping things up.

They change into the clothes Rian brought down and head up to the living room. Rian gets out some extra pillows and blankets, and they pull the couch out so they can all fit.

“Look at the moon,” Rian says.

They all crowd at the window and look into the night sky. The moon is full and shining bright.

“I’m gonna go outside, get some air.”

Before anyone else can say anything, Rian heads out to the backyard. Since he pointed out the moon, he appeared to be in a trance. But Zack doesn’t bring it up; maybe he’s just seeing things.

“I need more water,” Alex mumbles before heading to the kitchen.

“Should we get him more medicine?” Zack asks Jack.

Jack shrugs.

“I think he’ll be okay.”

Zack wants to double-check, but the exhaustion sets in and he nods.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

He settles onto the far side of the couch-bed and pulls the blanket over him. Jack gets in next to him and leaves a few inches of space between the two of them. Zack accepts the warmth, and closes his eyes. He falls asleep easily.

That peace isn’t going to last.


	4. Chapter 4

Alex doesn’t know why his throat is so sore, or why it hurt to begin with. All he knows is he has to soothe it. If he just drinks enough water, he should start feeling better.

He fills another glass with water and downs it. It barely does anything. He downs another glass. Still nothing.

As he downs a third glass, he hears Jack walk past him to the bathroom, and then the door shuts. He doesn’t pay it any mind and continues drinking. Why does it seem like his throat hurts worse than before?

He sets the glass aside and that allows him a brief second of relief. So drinking water won’t help with his throat.

_Good to know._

And then the pain returns, and it’s almost enough to send him to the floor. Nothing’s making sense; what’s happening to him?

A slow, rhythmic beating catches Alex’s attention and he can’t find it in himself to ignore it. It’s so familiar, yet he can’t place it. It’s so tempting and his mouth begins to water.  
Suddenly it hits him just how hungry he is; it feels like he hasn’t eaten in days. It doesn’t make sense. Dinner wasn’t very long ago.

But Alex is too entranced by the beating to put too much thought into it. He follows it into the living room, and for a moment he’s confused. Zack’s the only one in the room and there’s no sign of what’s causing the rhythmic beating.

That is, until Alex remembers where he’s heard it before:

It’s a heartbeat.

It’s coming from Zack.

Alex feels startled at the realization. He takes a step back but it takes every fiber of his being. Everything feels so confusing; what’s happening to him? Why can he hear Zack’s heartbeat? Is he a..?

No. No, they’re not real. Alex won’t entertain the thought.

He takes a seat on the pull-out bed and tries to calm the questions swirling through his mind. It isn’t easy; the beating cuts through every second and it’s getting harder and harder to ignore. He still won’t admit to being anything other than human.

He lays back and stares up at the ceiling. Answers would be real nice right about now, but there’s nothing he can do to get them. He doesn’t think so anyway.

Zack rolls over in his sleep and his hand brushes against Alex’s arm. The action sets Alex’s instincts off, and a sweet scent fills the air. It’s coming from Zack.

Alex sits up and stares down at his friend. Chills run down his spine as he realizes it’s the scent of his blood. He stands and backs away from the bed.

“No, no no no. I’m not gonna...I’m not gonna kill my best friend.”

He passes a mirror and something about it catches his attention. He turns to it and his heart nearly stops when he sees his reflection.

The Alex in the mirror has rich, red irises and fangs poking out of his mouth. He can’t deny it anymore:

_I’m a vampire._

* * *

As soon as Zack’s eyes close, he finds himself in the middle of a dream. He’s in a darkened room, yet he can tell that he’s not in any danger. It’s like he’s waiting for someone to come and get him.

From his seat, Zack looks around and in the pale light he can make out bookshelves lining the walls. They reached up to the ceiling and were filled to the brim with books. Some look new, the rest look old and weathered. The older books, some of them, are torn on the spine and have pages sticking out.

Zack himself is sitting at a table, an old-looking one. It reminds him of the one at his grandfather’s house, with all the details. He could almost see the scuff marks he and his siblings made when they were kids.

A lantern lights up next to him and he can hear someone walking into the room. Again, he can tell that he’s not in any danger. The person, whoever they are, picks a large book off of one of the shelves, and sits across from Zack. He tries to make out who they are, but they stay out of the light, so he can only see their silhouette.

The person opens the book and slides it in front of him. The pages are written in a language he doesn’t recognize. He looks at the person and shakes his head.

“I can’t read it.”

The person flips to another page, and Zack shakes his head again. They repeat this a few more times, then they take the book and flip to the beginning. Zack is about to tell them that he still can’t read it, but when he glances at the pages he sees his name. He keeps reading, and he can now make out a few words.

_Magic. Memories. Universe. Inside._

None of it is cohesive, but that makes sense, since he can’t read the rest of it. He looks up at the person and he can make out a small smile on their face. It’s a friendly and warm one, and he feels like he recognizes it.

“I...what does it mean?”

They wave their hand and the text on the pages begins to translate. Zack reads it and he grows confused. The text is talking about sorcerers discovering their magic and starting to harness it.

“Why are you showing me this?”

Then they speak, and he feels entranced by the voice.

“It’s time for you to discover your own magic.”

He feels like he can recognize the voice, but he can’t place it.

“My magic? But I’m not magical, I’m human.”

They shake their head. The person lights a candle and Zack notices the flame is a darker color, rather than a normal white or yellow. They grab his wrist and tilt the flame of the candle towards it. He wants to pull his hand back but their grip is unbreakable.

To his surprise, the flame doesn’t hurt. Instead, magical symbols appear on his skin and glow a bright blue. He looks at the person and wants to ask them how it’s possible, but he feels himself starting to wake up. The room begins to fall apart around them.

“Everything you need is in this book.”

The person closes the book and Zack recognizes the front cover; his family has that book somewhere in the house. His eyes snap open and he sits up, looking at his wrist. The symbols are still there, glowing brighter than ever.

When he gets home, he needs to find that book. 

* * *

Rian closes the door as he steps outside and looks up at the moon. There’s something inside of him that just needs to get out under the moonlight. He doesn’t pay much attention as to why.

He sits and closes his eyes. The soft light hits his skin and it makes him feel more alive than ever. Now he understands why his mom sleeps with the curtains open.  
A howl sounds in the distance and he opens his eyes. The sound stirs something deep in his chest and it’s almost as if he recognizes it.

Rian tries not to pay much attention to it. It’s probably just a dog in the neighborhood, and he’s had enough of them for now. His wrist is just starting to get back to normal but it still serves as a reminder of what happened.

He looks up at the moon and more howls sound. They sound like they’re coming from the same dog, but it’s getting closer and closer now. Panic begins to set in.

He starts for the door, but his instincts tell him not to. It’ll put his friends in danger. He turns away from the door and looks around. There’s nothing that he can use to defend himself.

Another howl, the next yard over. The hair on the back of his neck stands and he tries to figure something out.

Then pain shoots through his body, and he drops to his knees.

He opens his eyes and catches his hands changing. Into what, he doesn’t catch because he screws his eyes shut. His bones pop and shift and his body contorts into...something else.

That’s the best way he can describe it, at least until he opens his eyes. To his complete surprise, his hands have changed into wolf paws, and he panics as he realizes he’s a werewolf.

He doesn’t have enough time to dwell on that, though. Another wolf jumps over the fence into the backyard and Rian stands up taller. The other wolf is bigger than him, and could beat him in a fight, but that doesn’t stop him from baring his teeth at it.

The other wolf notices him and also bares its teeth. They circle each other for a few minutes and Rian growls at it. He puts as much fierosity into his actions as he can muster.

_Get away from my house._

The other wolf pauses and looks at him. Rian stays in his spot and keeps his fierce persona—wolf-sona?—up. He growls again. Then the other wolf backs away and runs off.

Rian looks after it as it leaves and allows himself to relax when he can no longer see it, or smell it. He realizes his sense of smell has improved, but he doesn’t let himself focus on that. He just wants to turn human again and forget what happened.

He pads over to where his torn clothes are and closes his eyes. He concentrates, yet when he opens his eyes he’s still in his wolf form.

Maybe he needs to let his body do the work. He buries the clothes and runs to the corner of the backyard, hiding himself. It takes a few minutes for him to settle into a spot, and when he does, he falls asleep. 

* * *

Jack closed the bathroom door and splashed some cold water on his face. He didn’t feel much better, his face still warm. He shuts his eyes and curses. When he opens his eyes, he’s not in Rian’s bathroom anymore.

He can’t really tell where he is, the area around him being pitch black. Soft voices fill the silence and as much as he tries to make them out, he can’t.

Panic rushes through him and he looks around, desperately wanting to get out of wherever he is. A voice cuts through.

“Don’t be afraid, Jack.”

He jumps at the mention of his name and he backs away from the voice. It doesn’t work, since it’s a voice.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jack asks, his voice cracking a bit from his nerves.

The voice doesn’t answer the question.

“Things will make sense in time.”

Candles around him light up and encase him in a circle, and in the air in front of him a book appears. He hesitantly grabs it and it flips open. He recognizes that it’s written in latin, and yet he can read it. He thought english is his only language.

“I don’t understand—what the fuck’s going on?”

“Things will make sense in time,” it repeats.

“Why can’t they make sense now!?”

The voice doesn’t answer, and Jack appears back in Rian’s bathroom. He’s still holding the book. He looks in the mirror and jumps.

His eyes are pitch black. A few seconds after he starts to panic, they go back to their normal brown. He starts calming down, but his confusion doesn’t fade away. Jack opens the book and on the first page a word catches his eye:

Daemonium.

_Demon._

He shuts the book and looks at himself in the mirror. If his family knows about what he is, they have some explaining to do.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Alex rushes home. For most of the day he stays in his room and ignores his mom knocking at his door. It’s not like he could tell her what he is.

Eventually she stops knocking and she leaves him alone. He breathes a sigh of relief and lays back on his bed. HIs phone buzzes with some texts from his friends. He didn’t say goodbye to them when he ran out that morning; he felt terrified he would hurt them.

And he couldn’t let that happen.

He picked his phone up and looked at the texts they sent.

**Rian**  
Dude, are you ok?

**Zack**  
What happened? you just ran out??

**Jack**  
Is something wrong? You left your guitar at rians

_My guitar._

He sits up a bit when he remembers his instrument and curses at himself for forgetting it. He sends a message to them.

**Alex**  
I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Feeling under the weather

Then he sends a text to Rian.

**Alex**  
Would you mind dropping my guitar off at my house? My mom will answer the door

**Rian**  
Yeah no problem

He sighs a bit in relief and sets his phone aside. He gets some more texts from the others but that’s it. Around dinner his mom stands at his door.

“Alex?” His mom’s voice cuts through the air.

“Hmm?”

“Would you open the door, please?”

“Uh, sorry mom, I—,” he pauses and coughs for effect, “—I’m not feeling too well.”

She doesn’t say anything for a few seconds.

“Okay. Well, I need to go to the store, so the house is yours while I’m gone. I’ll call when I’m on my way back.”

“Okay. Bye mom, I love you.”

“I love you too, Alex.”

He listens to his mom’s footsteps as they fade, eventually hearing the front door open and close. He leaves his room once he’s alone in the house and goes to the bathroom.

Since he saw himself in the mirror last night, he couldn’t get to sleep or focus on anything else. He hadn’t eaten that day either; finding out he’s a vampire sort of ruined his appetite.

Alex stares at himself in the bathroom mirror and examines his teeth. They don’t seem any sharper than usual, and his eyes are still their brown hue. No hint of red anywhere.  
He has the thought that he can force his eyes and fangs to change. Alex closes his eyes and thinks about the changes to his appearance. He doesn’t feel any different but he opens his eyes anyway.

No change.

_Maybe I’m doing something wrong._

A knock at the door caught his attention and he remembers that Rian’s supposed to stop by. He looks at his phone as it buzzes.

**Rian**  
I have your guitar

**Alex**  
Leave it on the doorstep, my mom went to the store. Thanks man

**Rian**  
No problem, feel better soon

Alex approaches the door, taking cautious steps, and listens for Rian’s car. He hears him drive off and feels a bit of relief. He opens the door and grabs his guitar case and that’s when he notices Lisa. She’s just pulling up and it’s too late to rush inside; she’s spotted him.

“Alex!”

She rushes up to the door, a smile on her face.

“Hey, Lisa,” Alex greets her. He takes a step back when she tries to go in for a hug.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just not feeling one hundred percent, don’t wanna get you sick.”

Lisa nods and stares at him for a second.

“So may I come inside?”

“Um, are you sure? I’m sick.”

“We don’t have to kiss or have sex, but I’d like to spend some time with you. We haven’t spent much time lately and I miss you.”

Alex nods and he steps aside, allowing her to walk in first. He runs up to drop his guitar off at his room and goes back to the living room, where Lisa’s getting comfortable on the couch.

“So, we don’t have a lot of time. My mom’s at the store and she’s gonna call on her way back.”

“Oh.”

Alex bites his lip and glances at the door.

“Unless, if you park down the street and rush back here before she gets home, we can stay in my room.”

Lisa smiles and stands, kissing his cheek.

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be right back.”

Alex smiles and places a hand over his cheek where she kissed it. The spot felt warm and he could almost feel her lips lingering on it.

She ran out the door and he waited for her to come back. He keeps his phone in his hand, waiting for his mom to call. Then he hears Lisa yelp and he rushes outside to see what happened.

The first thing that’s on his mind is Lisa.

The next is the blood coming from her arm.

He feels his fangs in his mouth and he shuts his eyes as he turns away. It takes everything in him not to notice the sweet smell of her blood, and to fight the urge to sink his teeth into the wound and drink as much as he needs.

“I’m sorry—I can’t.”

He closes the door as Lisa questions him and he runs to the backyard. He can still smell her blood.

Almost without thinking, he runs past the treeline. He keeps running, not paying attention to where he was until he can’t detect the smell of Lisa’s blood anymore. He stops and sinks to his knees. He pants as he tries to catch his breath.

The sky above him is dark and he can see stars emerging. His mom is probably home now, and Lisa must be questioning what’s wrong with him.

The scent of blood fills his nose again and can’t ignore it this time. His throat feels parched and he knows he has to drink blood if he wants it to go away. And he does.

Sniffing the air, he can tell there’s some deer around. How he knows their scents, he doesn’t understand, but he doesn’t overthink it. He stands and lets his instincts take over. 

The deer doesn’t have enough time to run. With a quick movement, Alex kills it, and it slumps to the ground. He holds its body and bites into it.

Deer blood doesn’t taste exactly like he expects and he has to stop every few seconds to keep from gagging. At least the blood would hold him over until the next feeding.

Eventually he finishes the blood, and he feels like his thirst has finally been quenched. He sets the body aside and wipes the blood from his mouth. He’s sure if someone’s around, they’ll think he’s a serial killer.

He stands and looks around to find the direction he came from. A figure catches his eye and he jumps, falling onto his backside.

“Alex?"

“Lisa,” he mumbles, eyes wide.

_How did she find me?_


	6. Chapter 6

Zack spends the morning he gets home looking for the book in his dream. He _knows_ he’s seen it around the house; so why can’t he find it? He searches every bookshelf, every box, every room in the house, and still can’t find it.

It’s difficult to miss it: the book is made of rich, green leather, and has a light blue oval-shaped gem on the front of it. There’s no other book that looks like that.

_Where is it?_

He’s starting to get frustrated. Maybe he should just go read the book he got from the library; it would calm him down. He goes to his room and shuts the door.

Even when he opens the book and turns to the first page, he can’t get the image of the other book out of his head. Zack sighs and throws the book to his backpack. Suddenly he doesn’t want to read anymore.

He closes his eyes and clenches his fist as the book enters his mind again. Is the book really in his house? Or did he just imagine it? He wouldn’t be so caught up on finding it if the magical person—or whatever the fuck they were—hadn’t told him that everything he needs is in it.

Zack sits up and he swears he can see the book in the room with him. Energy starts shooting through him, mostly in his hands, and he unclenches his fists as he opens his eyes.

Just then, the book appears and drops into his hands. There’s a soft blue glow around the book and coming from his hands, and it doesn’t take long to put two and two together.

He opens the book and sees the same foreign text he remembers from his dream. But this time he can’t read it.

“Fuck!”

“Zack?” His mom’s voice came from outside his door.

Shit.

“Sorry mom!”

“Are you feeling alright, hon?”

Zack shoves the book into his backpack before she could walk in and nods as she appears in the doorway.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Come here.”

He doesn’t object and steps closer. She puts the inside of her wrist on his forehead.

“You don’t feel warm. Is something else wrong?”

“No, really, I’m fine mom.”

She stares at him for a second before nodding. She plants a kiss on his forehead and steps back into the hallway. He closes the door and retrieves the book again.

_So how do I read this?_

He doesn’t have the figure to help him decipher the letters—or symbols?—so now he’s at a loss. The book is useless if he can’t read anything in it.

“Fuck,” he repeats, this time quieter.

He sets the book aside and a page falls out of the book. Zack grabs the paper and examines it. It’s a guide to reading the text.

_To decipher the text, repeat this phrase:_

_Aperire animo_

“Aperire animo?”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, the book opens and the text on the pages changes into english. A smile appears on his face and he begins reading.

“When a sorcerer begins to discover their magic, it brings about changes in all aspects of their life. As they learn to harness the magical energy within them, the sorcerer will need to separate from their friends, so as not to put them in any danger during their training.

“The sorcerer’s family will bring the budding sorcerer into a proper training environment where they will be able to explore their magic freely, until they have it under control. Connecting their powers to important memories and emotions will help immensely in mastering their skills.

“A sorcerer’s memories are directly connected to their emotions, and thus connected to their powers. 

“For example, memories connected to sadness will do best conjuring protective spells, and happiness and joy conjure healing spells. However, this doesn’t mean that simply experiencing an emotion or thinking of a memory will automatically cast spells. The sorcerer has to recite the spell and release the magic in them to do so.

“Meditation is the first step to connect important memories to their respective emotions. Once each memory elicits an emotional response, the sorcerer can start to cast spells. Once each emotion is connected to the sorcerer’s magic, they can start to cast spells more effectively, and without any need for a guide.

“The casting of spells is simple once a sorcerer’s magic is under control: with an incantation and a quick move of the wrist, and the spell is cast. 

“When a sorcerer casts a spell, a sorcerer’s circle appears underneath them. The circle is filled with magical symbols that represent the sorcerer’s family, and their family members will have some of the same symbols in their own circles.”

Zack stops reading and glances at the door. His family’s supposed to help him with his powers? Do they even know what he is? The book would say that they should.

But if they know, why did they never tell him? Finding out that he isn’t human is a pretty big thing _not_ to tell someone. If they’re sorcerers too, then what’s the point in letting him believe that he’s human? It doesn’t make sense.

He flips through the pages of the book, mostly looking at the sketches and diagrams. The drawings are of different spells that he can master but each of them mention a connection to a memory or an emotion. Clearly he’d have to start at the beginning if he wants to do any of this.

He flips back to the beginning of the book and another paper falls out of the book. Upon closer inspection, he sees that it’s a picture. He picks it up and almost drops it when he recognizes who’s in the photo.

It’s his parents, and they’re using magic. The picture looks like it was taken shortly after they got together. Zack flips the photo over and the date proves it; it’s from a little after they got married.

_My parents are sorcerers?_

So why did they never tell him or his siblings?

On instinct, he grabs his phone and goes to text the others about what he found out, but he remembers that they have no idea about any of this. The one time he needs to talk to his best friends, and he can’t.

“Shit,” he breathes. He sets the phone on his nightstand and turns back to the picture and the book. The picture had been tucked inside the book; did his parents have this book before him?

It’s too much to process and he has to move on. It feels like his head is gonna explode if he dwells on it.

“Meditation, huh?” If that’s how he has to connect to his magic, he would do his best.

Zack sets the book aside and closes his eyes. He focuses, and he can almost see himself back in that library from his dream. The more he focuses, the image becomes clearer. He realizes that he really is in the library, albeit not physically.

He looks around and it’s as if he never left, except for the fact that he’s alone. The figure is nowhere in sight.

A book appears in front of Zack and he realizes that it’s a photo book. He opens it and sees some of his most important memories, and they’re all in black and white. The first one he sees is when he first met his best friends.

Jack was the one that found him and talked to him. He liked that Zack was into skateboarding and invited him to meet his two other friends.

Zack grins at the memory. It’s only been about two and a half years since then and it’s probably the best thing to happen to him so far. The colors return to the picture, and a small amount of energy coursing through him lets him know that he successfully connected the memory and his emotion.

He repeats the process several more times: he laughs, he cries, he gets embarrassed, and he gets angry. And everything in between. 

It feels like it takes hours, but when he comes back to earth, he checks the time and his clock shows it’s only been a few minutes.

Now that that’s out of the way, Zack picks the book up again and flips through the first few pages. He gets past what he’s already read and starts off with some beginner spells.  
Zack decides on a protection spell; the page says it’ll protect people of his choosing. It doesn’t clarify what it’ll protect them against, only that it’s an easy spell to cast.

He keeps the book open and stands up, reading from the book. He keeps Alex, Jack, and Rian on his mind.

_“A solis ortu usque ad occasum, curam illorum.”_

Zack flicks his wrist towards the window and out of the corner of his eye, he can see a flash of blue light leaving his room. He goes to the window and sees the light split into and each light heads in a different direction.

“It worked,” he whispers, a grin appearing on his face.

“Zack?” His mom knocks on his door and the grin disappears from his face.

_Fuck!_

He shoves the book and the photograph under his blankets before answering the door.

“Hey,” he greets her.

“Is there someone in here with you?”

“What? No, just me in here.”

“Oh. I thought I heard you talking to someone.”

Zack shakes his head and looks around. His room is a bit messy, but empty. She nods and turns her attention back to him.

“If there was anything going on, would you tell me?”

He feels a bit surprised by the question.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“You’ve been acting weird lately. More withdrawn than usual. I’m worried.”

“You don’t need to be worried, mom. I’m fine, and yes, I would tell you if anything was going on.”

She nods and opens her arms for a hug. Zack hugs her and she plants a kiss on his forehead.

“Mom!”

“I love you, Zack.”

“I love you too.”

After that, she left and he shut his door again. He grabbed the picture and put it back in the book. That’s when he noticed the paper with the writing changed.

_To cipher the text again, repeat this phrase:_

_Claude ostium_

“Claude ostium.”

Before his eyes, the text went back to the foreign script and became unreadable once more. He put the book in his backpack again, and for the rest of the night he forgot about it.


	7. Chapter 7

Rian has to go to school in the morning, but he’s been avoiding this all week. He needs to face this at some point.

The last time he turned, it was a full moon, but there’s something inside of him that tells him he’ll turn tonight too. Looking at the moon, it isn’t full. He guesses that mostly full counts too. Although he doesn’t really understand it yet.

He says goodnight to his mom and stepdad, and once he’s sure they’d gone to bed and fallen asleep, he sneaks out to the backyard. Rian picks a spot where they won’t see him and he takes his clothes off. It was difficult to explain why his clothes were ripped and he doesn’t want a repeat of that. He also just doesn’t want ripped clothes again.

That morning a few days ago when he walked back into the house naked, his ripped clothes in his hand, was an awkward one. At least his best friends woke up before his parents did, or that would’ve been a lot worse.

The past few days he notices just how much has changed. For one thing, his senses are stronger. His hearing and sense of smell heightened, and he felt all around stronger. He freaked his mom out when he tried to keep his door from closing and ended up breaking it off the hinges.

Rian doesn’t have much time before the pain sets in and he drops to the ground. The pain is present throughout his body and he can feel his bones popping and shifting. He hates this the most.

_Why can’t I pass out for this?_

Rian shuts his eyes. His muscles and skin change as his fangs grow in his mouth. His ears pop and his breathing is labored, and the pain reaches its worst point. And then it stops.

He opens his eyes and looks at himself; he’s now in his wolf form.

There’s really no denying it anymore: he’s a werewolf, and there’s nothing he can do about it. That morning he got back after the first time turning he tried to tell himself that it was all just a nightmare.

That he was completely human.

And this is confirmation that he isn’t.

He looks up at the house and whines a bit, almost as if it’s an apology. And what is he apologizing for? For not being human. He wants to be, but he just isn’t.

And he hates that.

Rian runs to the front yard and makes it to the street. He knows the way to the woods from here. He’s anxious to get going; he doesn’t want to get caught or hurt anyone here.  
Memories from a few days ago run through his head: the other wolf, the howling, the hiding in his own backyard. As long as he kept on top of his transformations, he wouldn’t have a repeat of that.

Rian makes it to the woods and he runs in without much thought. After a few more minutes he stops and begins to catch his breath. He looks around and sees a small clearing ahead of him. He walks towards it.

The moonlight fills the air and Rian sighs as he lays down. Here, he could embrace the wolf side of him, even though he’d rather shove it down and pretend it doesn’t exist. He closes his eyes but he doesn’t allow himself to fall asleep.

It’s good he doesn’t.

In the distance, Rian can hear another wolf approaching. He gets to his feet and prepares himself for a fight. Now that he’s more alert, he can smell the faint scent of that particular wolf. It’s a regular around here, clearly.

The wolf pads into the area and seems to recognize him. Rian doesn’t take long to realize this is the wolf that wandered into his backyard a few days ago. He bares his teeth and tries to make himself look and sound menacing.

It doesn’t seem to work. The other wolf isn’t fazed.

_Calm down, young one._

Rian hesitates, but then he stops and relaxes.

_I’m not young._

The older wolf snorts and circles him.

_You’re younger than me._

That’s true, but it doesn’t seem that important right now.

_What did you want in my backyard, anyway?_

_Pardon?_

_A few nights ago. You came into my backyard and you wanted to fight me._

The older wolf stops his circling and sits in front of Rian, a few feet away. Rian can see a look in his eyes but he can’t make the emotion out, and that’s frustrating. 

_I remember._

_So why?_

Rian’s fur stands on end again and he lets out a low growl.

_Oh relax. I was patrolling the area. I frequent that backyard a lot. I wasn’t doing any harm._

_What if my parents had been outside? Or my friends? I had them over that night!_

The older wolf snorts and shakes, as if trying to get something off of him.

_I wouldn’t have harmed them._

_Then why were you ready to put up a fight?_

_Because you were._

Rian can’t argue with that. He lets his fur relax and sits down again.

_I can tell you’re new to the werewolf thing._

Rian looks at the other wolf.

_How did you know that?_

_I can tell by how inexperienced you are. You also have that new werewolf smell. I remember when I was a new wolf too._

The teenager feels shocked to learn that about the wolf. For some reason, it didn’t register in his head that this wolf was a werewolf like him.

_I can mentor you, if you’d like._

_Why would you do that for me? You don’t even know who I am, and I don’t know if I can trust you._

The wolf stares at him for a few seconds, and seems amused.

_I suppose I can’t convince you right now, but I assure you, we’re on the same side._

_Whatever._

_Do you still experience pain in the transformations?_

Rian glances at the wolf and nods.

_Don’t think of it as something that’s happening to you; a change from human to wolf. That leads to resisting in some way. Don’t resist. Relax, go with it. The transformation is part of who you are and you can control it._

Rian nods as he takes the information in. He didn’t expect the wolf to help him.

_Thank you._

_Of course. And your body knows when to transform. It’s better not to fight it._

A howl cuts through the air, and the older wolf looks in the direction it came from. He stands and he turns to Rian once more.

_I have to go. We’ll see each other again._

Rian can do nothing but watch as the older wolf runs off into the forest. After some more time, he can feel the transformation back approaching and he knows he needs to go back home. It’ll be good to test out the tip the wolf gave him.

He runs back through the town and back down his street. He jumps into his backyard and heads back to where he left his clothes. Rian looks up at the moon and he waits for his body to get ready for the transformation.

A few minutes later and it comes on. He does as the older wolf says and relaxes; it’s a part of him. If he can control it, then he can make sure that it doesn’t hurt. After a few seconds the cold chill of the air starts to get to him and when he opens his eyes he’s human again.

“It worked!” He says, a little louder than he should have. Rian makes quick work in changing again and he heads inside, unaware of the wolf watching him from the corner of the yard.

Rian’s mom wakes him up a few hours later.

“Rian? Honey?”

He opens his eyes and sees his mom leaning over him. He doesn’t have enough time to properly react before she pulls him into a hug.

“Thank god, I thought something was wrong!”

“Why?”

“You’re two hours late for school, you weren’t waking up when I shook you; I thought something happened to you!”

Rian grabs his alarm clock and panics when he sees the time.

“Shit!”

“Hold on, honey, it’s alright. I called the school and told them I’m taking you to the doctor’s today. So get dressed or we’ll be late for your appointment.”

He obliges. Aside from the long wait time, the appointment doesn’t last long and Rian makes it to school in time for lunch. He goes straight to the cafeteria and finds Alex and Jack.

“What happened to you?” The singer asks.

“Had a doctor’s appointment. I’m fine, my mom just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong.”

“Glad to hear you’re alright, bud,” Jack says as he wraps an arm around his shoulders.

“Me too, man. I’m doing a lot better than I thought.”

Of course, he’d be even better than that if he was human. But he’d take what he can get.


	8. Chapter 8

Jack wants to just brush the whole thing off as a weird fever dream; it’s easier to deny what he is than to confront it. But the book seemed to call his name from its spot underneath his bed, and he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

He goes up to his room once he gets home from school and shuts the door. Ever since he brought the book home, he’s been hoping that they didn’t notice anything.

He lays back on the bed and reaches underneath, his hand going right to where the book is. He hesitates to bring it up. If he does, he can’t allow himself to deny its existence or what he is.

_No sense in putting it off anymore._

Jack brings the book up and examines the cover. It’s smooth and cold, but he can’t tell what it’s made of. No matter, anyway. It’s what’s written inside that’s really important anyway.

He opens the book and he recognizes the latin script. It’s still boggling to him that his mind can read the language; it may have been his parents’ first language, but they never taught it to him.

The word daemonium sticks out to him once more.

He hates how normal the word feels now.

Jack keeps reading. The book appears to be a guide for new demons on how to control their powers. Good to know. He goes back to the beginning of the book and skips the first few pages; it’s mostly just talking about the origins of demons and their history. Most of it has to do with christianity and the opposition to God. Not really his thing. He skims the pages and takes notes on some things he finds important.

–new demons need to adjust to their powers; when they start appearing, the demon thinks that they’re coming down with a fever

–demons have different forms, the most common being human

–demons have some psychic-like powers?

–apparently demons can read emotions and projected images, and influence dreams?  
Important note: these powers are to manipulate people, they come from the opposition to God (so demons could turn people against him)

–demons and darkness go hand in hand, apparently  
They can control it pretty easily

–when demons gain complete control over their powers, they are terrifying; they can use their powers to unleash darkness and control a lot of people

–most demons lust for power, others don’t

Jack hears the front door open and he can hear voices in the front room. He places both the guide and the notebook under his bed again, heading downstairs. He feels a bit surprised to see his older brother and sister. They have a bag each and they look like they’d been travelling all day.

“What are you guys doing home?” He asks as he steps closer to hug them both.

“May and I got some time off and we wanted to spend it with our family.”

“We were hoping to surprise you guys!” May says. She plants a kiss on Jack’s forehead and he pushes away, wiping his face.

“Well it worked!”

The three of them turn to see their parents entering the room. Their parents hug May and Joe and for now, it’s easy for Jack to forget about everything he learned. 

* * *

Jack doesn’t get the idea to test out his powers until he’s at school the next day. It’s first period, Alex is sitting next to him, and neither of them are paying attention to the lesson.

 _What’s the harm in it?_ He thinks.

There’s harm in it, if only to Jack.

Jack focused on Alex’s emotion and he could tell that the singer’s happy. Like, really happy, more than he was letting on. Jack wonders if there’s anyway for him to read his thoughts, not just projected images. If there is, there’s no time to try it now. He settles for reading an image in Alex’s head and does so.

The image is from Alex’s perspective. It’s him and Lisa in the woods at night. Then it changes; Alex is standing now. He and Lisa look at each other. The images start to play like a stop motion film. It starts to feel invasive when they start kissing, and then a few minutes later they’re—

_Oh god!_

Jack looks away and for a second it feels like he’s about to vomit. Seeing the memories of his best friend being intimate with his girlfriend was _not_ what he needed at the start of the day.

“Is everything okay, Jack?”

He looks up when the teacher calls his name and nods.

“Yeah, just...slight headache.”

“Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”

Jack shakes his head, and when the teacher persists, he insists that he’s fine. Alex gives him a worried glance and passes him a note.

_Are you really feeling okay?_

Jack looks at Alex and passes the note back.

_I’m fine, dude_

No one questions him after that, and Jack decides not to look into his friend’s minds after that. At lunch they head to their usual table and Rian and Lisa join them. Jack sits next to Rian. It’s just as well; Alex and Lisa are being more affectionate than usual.

“What’s with the lovebirds?” Rian asks him.

Jack shivers at the thought of the memory of them in the woods. That’s gonna haunt him for a while.

“I think it’s better if we don’t know.”

Rian gives him a weird look but doesn’t question it. For the most part, they eat in silence, until Alex breaks it.

“When do you guys want to have another band practice?”

 _Right, practice._ Since that night at Rian’s house, they hadn’t gotten together to practice again.

“Um, I don’t know. May and Joe got home yesterday and they want to spend time together.”

“Yeah, I’m not completely sure either. My schedule got kind of weird recently.”

Alex nods but it’s not difficult to see the surprise in his face.

“Okay. As soon as we’re all free we should start practicing again.”

Rian and Jack nod in agreement. No one brings up practice again after that. 

* * *

“Look, all I’m saying is—”

“Shut up, Joe!” May laughs, pushing him as they walk in the front door.

“Hey, no pushing your brother,” their mom says. She gets in between them and holds May’s hand.

Jack smiles as he watches them and follows them into the living room. He forgot how much he missed the whole family being together. May and Joe settle in on the couch while their parents head into the kitchen.

“Hey Jack, why don’t you pick the movie?”

“Yeah, alright.”

He gets out the collection of DVDs and goes through them. It takes him a while to find one that he likes, and Joe and May both head into the kitchen to get something to eat.  
Just as he finds a move to put on, he stands and sees something on the bookshelf. It looks like the guidebook he hid under his bed.

It is the guidebook. But why was it here?

He sets the movie aside and grabs the book from the shelf. Jack opens it, hoping it won’t be the same latin text greeting him.

It is.

Jack glances in the direction of the kitchen and feels panic running through him. He thought that he hid the book well enough; his family doesn’t snoop, and even if they did, they’d never look under the bed.

_How did they find this?_

The thought occurs to him that maybe it’s just a copy, maybe they didn’t find the book under his bed. He keeps the book in his hand and goes to his room. His family doesn’t notice and he rushes to look under his bed. The notebook’s where he left it. The guidebook isn’t.

Someone took the book from there.

He looks down at the book and shoves it back into the hiding place. His family knows, they have to. You don’t have a book like that lying around the house and know where it is if you don’t know someone in your family’s a demon.

That just raises more questions, and his head races. He can’t handle it right now and he needs some time alone.

“Jack?”

He looks up when he hears his mom’s voice. He stands and goes to the top of the stairs.

“I’m not feeling that well, so I think I’ll have to skip movie night tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to risk you guys getting sick too.”

He doesn’t give them the chance to say anything else and he closes his door. His family says something, but they lowered their voices and he can’t hear them. His chest tightens and he tries to get his mind off of the revelation. Out of instinct, he grabs his phone and goes through his contacts. He sends a text to Zack.

**Jack**  
Hey i need someone to talk to

Then he sets his phone on the bed next to him and tries to calm his racing thoughts.


	9. Chapter 9

After band practice, Rian comes up with the idea to go out to eat. Jack and Zack have no problem with it, but Alex seems hesitant.

“I don’t know, guys. I mean, Lisa and I, we had plans to...talk. So, I, I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to come, it was just an idea,” Rian says.

“Wait, what’s stopping you from talking with her when you’re with us?”

Alex looks at Jack and he nods, almost like he can’t come up with a different reason not to join them.

“You’re right.”

“So you’re coming?”

Alex nods again. The four of them decide where to meet and they head off. For a second, they think Alex is gonna bail on them, but then his car pulls into the parking lot.

“Had to let my parents know where I am,” he tells them, despite no one asking.

They head inside and they’re seated. Alex is still acting weird but no one says anything to him about it. He keeps looking between his phone and the clock on the wall.

Jack, Rian, and Zack keep themselves occupied with conversation. Alex chimes in sometimes, but for the most part keeps to himself. There’s an unspoken question that they’re all wondering:

What’s he hiding?

Rian feels a pang of guilt running through him and he feels like a hypocrite. He’s hiding the fact that he’s a werewolf from his friends; it’s not fair for him to think about what secrets his friends have. He should just move on.

A silence passes over their table and no one seems to be able to look each other in the eye. They finish up and pay, and they head out to their cars.

“See you guys,” Alex calls to the others. They echo the same back and each of them drives off. 

* * *

Alex couldn’t wait for dinner to end. He didn’t want to risk hurting his friends; he’d barely stopped himself from hurting Lisa when she came over. Running into the woods that night seemed to take everything in him. He didn’t want a repeat of that.

Lisa’s already at his house when he pulls up. She smiles at him when she sees his car and walks over when he parks. As soon as he gets out she kisses him.

“I was starting to think you weren’t showing up.”

“The others wanted to go out to eat, and I couldn’t find a reason not to go.”

Alex takes her hand in his own and they walk around the house to the backyard. He couldn’t quite remember the path he took to the woods, but Lisa would help him with that. It still surprises him that she’s so easily accepting of the fact that he’s a vampire. Memories of that night run through his head.

_Lisa’s standing a few feet away from him and he’s still on the ground. Her eyes are wide, but not as wide as when someone’s in complete and total shock._

_“Lisa, I—”_

_“You’re a vampire?” She asks softly. There’s nothing he can do but nod. His fangs are still visible and blood is dripping down his chin._

_“That’s why you didn’t feel good,” she puts together. She kneels beside him and he scoots back._

_“Stay away from me. I’m gonna hurt you.”_

_Lisa raises a hand and a soft purple glow fills the area. The deer’s body disappears and when she touches him, a sense of calm flows through his body. His fangs retract involuntarily._

_“It’s okay. You’re not gonna hurt me.”_

_Alex has questions, a lot of them for her, but for now they can wait. He leans into her touch and closes his eyes. This is the most relaxed he’s been since that night at Rian’s._

_“I don’t understand.”_

_“Well, there’s really no way to sugarcoat it: I’m a witch. And I can help you with the bloodlust, if you’ll let me.”_

_“I think I’d like that.”_

Alex smiles at the memory and squeezes her hand. She squeezes back and with a wave of her free hand, they appear in the woods. It’s not exactly where he was a few nights ago but it’s not like that really matters.

“Ready?” She asks him.

“I think so.”

“You know, this would be a lot easier if you wouldn’t wait so long between feedings.”

“Yeah, I know, but it’s not like killing things to survive is something I want to do.”

Lisa’s face softens and she nods.

“Alright.” She lets go of his hand and takes a step back. “But we should really get this over with.”

Alex takes a breath and closes his eyes. Her tips ring through his head and he does his best to concentrate. When he opens his eyes, they’re a bright red.

“Ready.” 

* * *

Zack comes home to an empty house. His mom left a note for him, explaining how she and his dad went out for a date night. 

He feels happy to have the house to himself; he can practice his magic without fear of someone noticing. Since he found out, he had to settle for practicing in his room at night or at random moments when he’s sure no one’s around.

He goes to his room and summons the book. It appears in his hand and he doesn’t wait for the blue glow to dissipate before he opens it.

Upon reading further into the book, he learns that verbally casting spells are easier forms of magic and don’t take as much energy. Since he’s been casting easier spells all week, he decides to try some of the more difficult ones.

Zack sets the book on his desk and goes across the room. He takes a breath; he’s gonna need to concentrate. He raises his hands and focuses his energy on the book and envisions it being lifted over to him. 

It takes a few minutes before anything happens. It’s not until he can feel...well, magic, coursing through him when the spell works. The book hovers in the air and flies to his hand.

“It worked!” He says out of excitement.

Zack tries the trick again with his bass, making sure not to drop it. The instrument flies to his hand. It’s steadier this time since he knows what he’s doing now. Even though the spell’s over, the feeling of magic still running through him. He’s grown to love that feeling.

“I’m never gonna get sick of that,” he mumbles, a small smile gracing his features. He sets the bass aside and he flips through the book to see what else he can do, but after a few moments he drops it. The passage about parents catches his attention. His family is supposed to help him master his abilities, but that would mean that they know that he’s a sorcerer. So why would they never say anything about it? Why would they hide it from him? A feeling of betrayal courses through him.

_Whatever._

Zack won’t let himself think about that. He decides to stop for a while and he sits on his bed. He could use someone to talk to but it’s not like he can tell anyone about what’s bothering him. His best friends wouldn’t understand.

Would they even accept him if they knew?

He doesn’t think that they would. Zack sighs and runs a hand through his hair, laying back on his bed. His instinct is to reach out to his friends but he knows he can’t this time. He has to deal with all these questions alone.

That’s the part of being a sorcerer that he hates the most. 

* * *

Rian runs through the woods, the older werewolf on his tail. He wants to make it to the clearing first; beating a more experienced wolf on their territory would be pretty satisfying. The wolf catches up to him, but Rian speeds up. He beats the other by a few paces and he pads through the clearing happily.

_Nice job, Rian._

The teenager turns to the wolf and holds his head up high. The tips the werewolf gives him are really helping him.

_Turn back human_ , the wolf instructs.

_Why?_

_Your abilities aren’t limited to your wolf form; you can access them in your human body too. But in order to do that, we’ll need to practice._

_Wait, I don’t have any clothes._

_Look behind that tree._

Rian does as he says and finds a duffle bag. It’s full of clothes and other supplies. He doesn’t ask any questions and grabs some spare clothes, closing his eyes. Rian can feel his body changing back, but there’s no pain and his body no longer cracks and pops. When he opens his eyes, he’s human again. He changes quickly and sits across from the wolf.

_Good._

Its voice rings through his head and Rian jumps a little. He didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t that.

_There’s no need to be startled. It’s good to know that you can still hear me._

“So what do you want me to do?”

_Sit. Listen. In your human form you need to be as vigilant as you are in your wolf form. Listen for where I go and defend yourself when I strike._

“Strike?”

_Only as practice. I won’t hurt you._

Rian nods and closes his eyes. The wolf moves and he keeps his focus on where he goes. There’s barely a rustle of the leaves when Rian leaps forward. Opening his eyes, he sees the wolf where he was just sitting.

_Good. Keep up this progress and you’ll be able to protect your friends and family without fail._

Right. Them. None of them had any idea of what he is, or what he’s doing right now. It’d be easier if they did know. At least he wouldn’t have to sneak around and keep secrets.

_Focus! We’ll be doing that again._

Rian shakes his head and focuses back on the wolf. He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. 

* * *

“Jack, honey?”

Jack paused and turned to look at his mom, who’s standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Aren’t you gonna spend time with your brother and sister?”

“Well, I’m not—I’m—”

“Not feeling well?” She asks, crossing her arms.

Jack hates the look she gives him. He knows she knows that he’s fine; there’s no reason for him to be isolating himself, especially from his family. Ever since May and Joe came home he’d hardly spent any time with them. He has a good reason, but it’s not like anyone would understand. They were only staying for a couple hours before they had to go back to their homes.

“Whatever, do what you want. But you’re gonna feel awful when you remember that you didn’t spend any time with your family.”

She walks off and Jack thinks he can actually feel his heart drop. Shuffling from the next room lets him know that everyone heard what she said to him. He turns and makes his way up to his room.

For the past few days he thought he’d been making progress. Well, progress with his powers. He’d mastered the reading of emotions and reading projected images; he even found out how to intercept someone’s thoughts. Just yesterday he figured out how to manipulate shadows and darkness in general. His progress made him feel good, and with how he was using his powers, he felt confident that maybe being a demon wouldn’t be so bad.

But the price he has to pay for that is spending less time with his family. It’s not like he wants to stay away from May and Joe; he’s missed them a lot, and he’d love nothing more to have spent more time with them.

Jack is a demon however, and it doesn’t matter if he’s a good one or not. Someone’s going to get hurt if they find out.

And he won’t let that happen.

He can hear voices downstairs and he can hear his name being mentioned. Probably his parents wondering what his problem is. Tears pool in his eyes and he turns on some music. Then he rolls over in his bed and buries his head into his pillow.

He’s probably the first demon ever to cry. And he hates that.


	10. Chapter 10

Alex pulls into the driveway and stays in his car for a second. It’s only been a couple of days since he and Lisa went out into the woods, but he needed feed again. Animal blood only holds him over for so long, and that’s why Lisa had proposed her idea.

Alex didn’t know if he could go through with it. He can barely contain himself when he drinks animal blood; what if something happened to her?

What if he _did_ something to her?

Alex groans and rests his forehead against his steering wheel. He needs to make a decision about what to do before Lisa arrives. The cold winter air hits him as he gets out of his car and walks towards the front door.

A couple hours later, Lisa knocks on the door. Alex makes his way downstairs but his mom beats him to the door.

“Hi, Mrs. Gaskarth. I came to pick up Alex.”

“Oh, you two going out tonight?”

“That’s the plan.”

Alex makes sure he has his phone before walking towards the door. He gives his mom a hug and says goodbye to her. When she closes the door and wishes them well, they make their way over to the car.

“Are you excited about tonight?” Lisa asks as he gets into the passenger seat.

“ _Excited_ isn’t really the word for it.”

Lisa glances at him as she starts the car and pulls out of the driveway. She reaches over and takes his hand in hers, their fingers interlocking.

“Are you still worried about hurting me?”

“It’s just—what if I can’t control myself? What if I kill you?”

Silence falls over them for a few minutes. She pulls into the empty lot and she stops the car, looking over at him.

“Do you love me?”

“What?”

“Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you!”

“I love you too, which is why I came up with this idea. It’ll really help you.”

“But I could—”

“You’re not gonna kill me, Alex,” she says, moving a hand to stroke his cheek. “Because you love me, you’ll be able to stop yourself.”

The way Lisa’s looking at him, with complete trust and admiration in her eyes, it relaxed Alex. He leans into her touch and smiles.

“Okay.”

Alex pecks her lips and pulls her close, his fangs breaking through the skin on her neck. The taste of her blood makes him pause; it’s so different from animal blood and sweet, and it doesn’t take nearly as much to satisfy him. He pulls away, grabbing the kit that Lisa has in the glove box.

Lisa walked him through the steps enough times, he works as if he’s cleaned up vampire bites his whole life.

“Better?” He asks.

She smiles and nods.

“Better.” 

* * *

Zack can’t help but stare at Jack. He’s seemed so sad lately, and all he wants to do is make him feel better. But Jack isn’t telling him anything.

“Are you feeling alright?” He asks once again

“Yeah, Zack. I’m fine.”

Zack knows better than to keep prying but something inside of him makes him wonder: what’s going on with him. He feels like a jerk for thinking about what one of his best friends is hiding, when he himself is hiding something from him. But it’s not like Jack would still want to be friends with him if he knew.

“Do you want to listen to music in my room?”

Jack shrugs in an attempt to get him to stop prying. Zack frowns and looks away. If he’d rather be alone, then why did he agree to come over today?

“You don’t need to stay if you don’t want to.”

Jack looks over at him.

“No, Zack, I’m—it’s not—I’m just going through a lot right now. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

He feels a bit better when Jack explains.

“If you’re struggling you can talk to me about it, you know.”

“I know, and usually I would talk to you about it, but it’s different this time. It sounds bad, but it really isn’t. I just...you can’t know about it.”

Zack nods.

“I guess I understand that.”

“Is the offer to listen to music still on the table?”

“Of course.”

The two boys walk up to Zack’s room and put a Green Day album into the player. Then they sit on Zack’s bed and make conversation.

“Do you think I can stay over here tonight?”

Zack feels surprised at the question, but he nods anyway.

“Yeah, I’ll ask my mom, but she should be fine with it anyway.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, of course.”

A moment of silence.

“Do you know why I’m asking about that?”

“No, not really,” Zack shrugs.

“I’m just...having some family problems. I didn’t think they were that bad but things are getting tense. And, I don’t know, I just don’t feel welcome in my own house anymore.”

“Hey,” Zack says, opening his arms for a hug. He smiles when Jack takes him up on it. His hands emit a soft blue glow as he concentrates on a spell, hoping to make Jack feel better. He rests his hands on Jack’s back and sees the glow transfer to his friend.

“I hope things get better.”

“Me too.” 

* * *

 _Thanks for the help_ , Rian says to the older werewolf.

_Of course._

Rian shakes and makes sure to get all of the grass and leaves out of his fur. The sessions with the older wolf had started to go later and later into the night, and today, it’s about dawn when they decide to stop. Rian can almost feel the exhaustion in his body but he doesn’t let it set in. He still needs to make the trip back to the house.

_I won’t be around for the next full moon. That should give you the perfect chance to use everything I’ve taught you._

Rian nods.

_It should, yeah._

The older wolf stands and they look at each other for a moment, communicating silently. Then they both run off.

The early morning light starts shining on the house by the time Rian changes back into his human form. He changes as fast as he can and heads for the house. It should still be early enough that his parents aren’t awake yet. He steps inside and turns, jumping when his mom is standing there.

“What were you doing in the backyard this early?”

“Oh, um, just getting some fresh air.”

“At five in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“So why didn’t you open your window?”

“Well, you, uh, know how boys are. Stupid.”

His mom shakes her head.

“You’re not stupid, Rian. A bit weird, but you’re not stupid.”

She pulls him in for a hug, and he thinks that maybe he’s gotten away with it. Then she picks something off of his clothes and pulls back to look at him.

“Is this a leaf? Were you lying down out there?”

Rian mentally curses and looks at the leaf she’s holding. Glancing down at his clothes he sees dirt he forgot to brush off. The late night werewolf training sessions really need to end earlier.

“Yeah, um, just trying to relax.”

“So you lay down out there?”

“Yes, is there a problem with that?”

She looks surprised at the attitude he gave her but he doesn’t give her time to say anything else; he storms up to his room and shuts the door.

_That was too close of a call._

* * *

The day after he spends the night at Zack’s, Jack goes to school. He’s dreading going home. He’s been fine for most of the day, but now the memory of what happened a few days ago is coming back to him.

He tried to apologize to May and Joe, but he isn’t even sure if they got his texts. Maybe they’re ignoring him.

His parents aren’t doing much better. They’re not ignoring him, but they’re quiet. No one says anything when they’re in the room together. It feels tense and he knows why that is.

And he hates it.

On the drive home, he doesn’t bother with the radio. Might as well prepare himself for when he gets home. He pulls into the driveway and walks inside, seeing his mom in the living room. They hardly acknowledge each other before he goes up to his room.

The book is on his bed waiting for him when he walks in. He grabs it and flips through the first few pages. The silence in the house is killing him and he wants to see what he can do to fix it.

Jack sits on his bed and sets the book aside, an idea coming to mind. He closes his eyes and focuses on his parents down stairs. He can hear his mom’s thoughts, or at least the images in them. 

He can sense that she’s wondering what’s going on with him. It’s not like he can tell her and solve _that_ problem. Then he picks up on how hurt she was. It seems like she thinks he deliberately shut them all out.

Jack pulls back and he sighs. It would be so easy to tell her what he is and why he kept himself away from everyone. But he can’t.

They wouldn’t understand.

He sighs again and pinches the bridge of his nose, laying back on the bed. As he stares at the ceiling, he wishes once more that he could be human.


	11. Chapter 11

About a week later, the boys meet up at Rian’s house again. Not for band practice; they’d already practiced this week. Today is just to catch up and hang out. They hadn’t done enough of that lately.

After school, they make their way over to Rian’s house. Rian and Jack get there first and head down to the basement. A few minutes later, Zack pulls up to the house. The three of them are together for nearly an hour before Alex arrives.

In the meantime, they turn on the TV. They flip through a few channels before they settle on one and Jack glances between his friends.

“When’s Alex getting here?”

“No idea,” Rian shrugs. He pops a piece of popcorn into his mouth. Whenever Zack or Jack tries to get a piece for themselves, the drummer slaps their hands and moves the bowl.

“Give us a piece of popcorn!” Zack complains.

“No!”

“Well why the fuck not?”

“Because it’s my food!”

“There’s this thing called ‘sharing,’ you asshole.”

“That word isn’t in my vocabulary,” Rian delivers with a sarcastic tone.

“Just give us some popcorn and we’ll stop complaining!”

Rian stands and goes to move the bowl but Jack latches onto him and sends them both to the ground. Rian tries to kick Jack away but he tightens his grip. 

“Zack, get the popcorn!”

They hear laughing, and they both look over at the bassist to see his face red and tears forming in his eyes. He’s shaking with laughter and he’s starting to curl up on the couch.

“Zack! The popcorn!”

“No!” Rian protests. He puts a hand on Jack’s face and tries to push him off of him. Zack starts laughing harder.

“I love you guys,” he says in between breaths.

The doorbell rings and they all look up. Rian manages to get out from Jack’s grip and heads up to answer the door.

“Is that Alex?”

“It’s about time,” Rian says.

Jack stands and brushes his clothes off before taking his place on the couch again. Zack calms down and catches his breath, wiping his eyes.

“I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.”

“Was it really that funny?”

Zack nods and smiles. A grin makes its way onto Jack’s face and they both turn their attention to the stairs. Alex walks down first.

“What took you so long? We drove over as soon as school let out.”

“I was with Lisa.”

Zack and Jack exchange glances. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened.

“Did you guys have a good time?” Rian asks as he follows Alex down.

The singer glares at his friends and hits Rian’s shoulder. He takes a seat on the far side of the couch.

“Get your minds out of the gutter.”

_You make that a little difficult_ , Jack thinks. He doesn’t dare to voice the thought out loud; Alex still has no idea about that one time at school.

“You ready to hang out or what?”

“Yes! Stop being all pissy about it!”

The four of them turn their attention to the screen and the conversation dies down. Rian hogs the popcorn once more and the others try to get some kernels for themselves. They’re not successful.

“Just let us have some fucking food!”

“No! This is _my_ house and _my_ food!”

“Oh, for the love of _fuck_ —” Zack grumbles. Without thinking, he reaches a hand up and summons some popcorn over to him. It’s too late for him to realize what he’s doing, and after a couple seconds, the other three notice.

“What the fuck!”

Zack glances over and it’s almost as if he remembers his powers and stops summoning the popcorn. That doesn’t seem to help anything; the blue glow is still emitting from his hands for the next few moments and his friends have all jumped in her seats. They all lean away from him and their eyes hold a mixture of shock, confusion, and slight horror.

“Guys, I, I can explain!”

They aren’t gonna like the answer, though. He knows that for sure.

Zack stands and takes a few steps back, his hands up. They create a little more space between them. He tries not to take it personally.

“So, I’m not gonna beat around the bush or sugarcoat: I’m a sorcerer.”

Jack’s eyes widen and Rian looks at him with skeptical expression.

“A what?”

Zack closes his eyes and summons the book. When he feels the book appear in his hands he opens his eyes again. His friends look on with wide eyes. He doesn’t think that he can meet their gazes.

“I know I should’ve told you guys about this sooner, but I—”

Zack cut himself off as he felt someone hugging him. As he looks around, he sees it’s Jack. He uses his magic and sends the book home before he hugs back. Alex and Rian glance at each other before slowly joining the hug.

“You’re still my friend,” Jack mumbles, pulling back to smile at him. “And besides, I guess I’m not really in the position to be mad at you for not telling us about this.”

“What are you talking about?” Zack asks him.

Jack’s face flushes and he rubs the back of his neck. Alex and Rian glance at each other in confusion.

“Well, I guess I kind of just need to come out with it….”

Jack takes a step back and when he opens his eyes they’re pitch black. He holds his hand out and the shadows in the room head to his palm. One word runs through their minds:

_Demon._

The other three jump back, but Jack doesn’t seem surprised. His eyes and hand go back to normal and he keeps his gaze down.

“Okay, does anyone else have a secret they’ve been keeping from us?” Zack asks.

“I’m a vampire—”

“I’m not human either—”

Alex and Rian look at each other with shocked expressions as they interrupted each other while Zack and Jack exchange glances. No one expected to hear that they were all sharing similar secrets.

“Wait wait wait! _None_ of us are human?”

The four boys look at each other and they don’t know how to react. It’s a relief for all of them not to have to keep their secrets, and they should all be able to understand why they couldn’t say anything. But it’s also a shock for them to realize that their friends aren’t human.

They’re all quiet for an uncomfortably long amount of time, just thinking about the situation. Then a question crosses Zack’s mind.

“Wait, Rian, _what_ are you?”

“I’m a werewolf.” 

“Oh. Okay.” 

No one else says anything, until Rian’s mom speaks to them from the top of the stairs.\ 

“Rian, is everything okay down there?” 

“Yeah mom, we’re fine.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes, mom!” 

“I could—” 

“No, seriously, we’re fine!” 

“Alright, sorry for intruding. I love you.” 

“Love you too, mom.” 

Rian heads up the stairs and closes the door. He realizes that they should’ve done that sooner and he goes back down. 

“Do we want to talk about it?” Jack asks. 

“What, the not-being-human thing?” 

“What else?” 

They slowly make their way back to the couch and they all avoid each other’s gazes. No one knows how to start the conversation now. 

“When did you guys find out?” 

They all look at Zack as he breaks the silence. It only makes sense; he was the one that wanted to talk about the nightmares they had, he’s the one that they can talk to. When with the right people, he was a talkative person. 

“That day when we were here and we decided to stay over,” Alex mumbles. The others echo the same answer. 

“What was it about that night? Why was _that_ the night that we found out?” 

No one has an answer for that. 

“So how did you guys find out?” Rian picks at his fingers as he poses the question. 

“I had a dream about my powers,” Zack explains. 

“I kind of...I don’t know. I, like, went into this black void place and I was given a book while a voice said things would make sense over time.” 

“When I went out into the backyard,” Rian pauses, “to look at the full moon, a few minutes later I changed into my wolf form.” 

Alex doesn’t answer right away. His friends turn their attention to him and Jack nudges him a bit. 

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. 

Alex nods and takes a breath before he starts speaking. 

“Well, um, I went to the kitchen to get some water, but no matter how much I drank, it just didn’t help. Then I could hear someone’s heartbeat and when I passed by a mirror, my eyes were red and fangs appeared in my mouth.” 

Alex doesn’t mention the fact that it was _Zack’s_ heartbeat that he heard, or that he felt tempted to drain the life out of him. 

“So what do we do now?” Jack questions. 

“Stick together. It’s not like anyone else would understand.” 


	12. Chapter 12

It doesn’t take much to convince Rian’s mom to let the others stay the night. Some quick calls to their parents and they got permission to stay over.

“Do you boys want anything to eat?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure.”

“Rian, you’ll actually need to _share_ the food this time.”

“Okay, mom!”

She nods and heads upstairs. There’s a quiet that settles over the room and no one says anything at first. Zack wants to break the silence—he’s been so sick of those lately—but he doesn’t.

“So are we just gonna stop talking about it?” Alex asks.

His question surprises everyone but it seems to be the one thing that gets them to relax and open up.

“What does everyone want to know?”

“I don’t know. What’s it like to, you know, be what we are?” The singer questions. Before anyone can start answering, Rian gets up and closes the door to the basement again. Then he comes back and takes his seat again.

“Don’t want my mom listening in on us,” he explains.

“So who wants to start?”

Jack raises a hand.

“So, I, I don’t really know where to start. Or how.” He runs a hand through his hair and he avoids looking anyone in the eye. “It’s weird. Demons aren’t like the monsters people make them out to be. At least, not all of them. I’m not, obviously. Demons really like to take human forms, but they can take other forms too.

“The main thing about demons is that they’re meant to manipulate people, so the whole destroyer and darkness persona we associate with them aren’t really necessary all that much. A lot of demons have more psychic powers, like being able to intercept thoughts or manipulate dreams.

“The more experienced ones can possess people, too. Demons also control darkness and shadows but that’s more for personal use or to scare others.”

“Why are they so obsessed with manipulating people?” Rian asks.

“It has to do with religion. Demons used to want to cause people to stray from God and christianity. The psychic powers were mostly used to make people question their faith and all that. I’m sure some still want to do that, but I think most of them just do whatever they want now.”

“So what can you do?”

“I can use the psychic powers. To be honest, I’ve practiced a little on you guys—”

“Wait, you’ve _what_!?”

“Just to see what’s wrong or make you guys happy! I figured out how to manipulate emotions, so when you were upset...I, you know, helped out a little.”

Zack, Rian, and Alex glance at each other. They can’t really be mad at that, though it does come as a shock.

“And you can control shadows, as we saw,” Rian comments. Jack nods.

“Yeah, I can. There’s actually more to a demon's powers, but they’re not really needed anymore. And I don’t want to learn any more; I know it sounds stupid, but it just feels like if I do, I’ll start losing what makes me human.”

“That’s not stupid, Jack.” Zack nudges him and gives him a smile.

By this point, everyone had gotten more comfortable with the conversation, and Jack isn’t avoiding anyone’s gazes anymore.

“What about you, Zack?”

The bassist glances at Alex when he asks the question and holds a hand out as he summons his book once more.

“What do you guys want to know?”

“What does it feel like when you do magic?” Jack asks.

“When I first started, it felt like a sort of special kind of adrenaline coursing through me. The more I practice, the more it feels like it’s just a part of who I am, like it’s something I’m meant to do.”

“Can we see what’s in the book?”

Zack hands it to them without thinking about it. It’s when they turn to the first page and confusion crosses their face when he remembers he’s the only one that can read the text. 

“Oh, sorry guys. Aperire animo.”

Rian and Alex look at the text in wonder as it translates into english. They glance up at Zack and begin reading.

“What’s this book?”

“It’s a guide for sorcerer’s, and it doubles as a spell book.”

“Do you have to say that phrase every time you need to read this?” Alex turns a page and Rian nudges him, mumbling something about not being finished with the page.

“I used to. I’ve been trying to decipher the language so I won’t have to translate it every time. I don’t really want someone to use the information in there the wrong way, you know?”

They nod.

“So how do you cast spells?”

“Well starting out, I needed to say the spell out loud and wave my hand. The more I practice, the easier it gets, and I only need to think about the spell when I cast it. The book says that’s common as a sorcerer makes progress. A master can cast spells only with their mind.”

Before they can ask more questions, Rian’s mom knocks on the door.

“Dinner’s ready!”

“Let’s continue this after dinner.”

Then the four boys run upstairs and join Rian’s family at the dinner table.

“Are you boys sure you want to sleep in the basement? I’m sure it’s much cozier in Rian’s room.”

“We’re sure, mom. We wanna stay up and watch movies.”

“Alright,” she says. She knows not to argue with them about it; it’s not a big deal anyway. “Goodnight, boys. See you in the morning.”

“Night.”

“Night, Mrs. Dawson.”

“Night, mom. I love you.”

“I love you too, Rian.” She closes the door and they can hear her heading upstairs.

“You guys ready?” Jack asks. When the others nod, he puts his hand on the darkened wall and his eyes turn black. The shadows move and create a doorway to the backyard. They walk through and Jack closes the doorway when they’re all on the other side.

“That’s easier than just sneaking out,” Rian mumbles.

“So what do we do now?”

“I have to transform,” the drummer says, looking up at the full moon. “Then I run out to the woods and use what the other werewolf’s been teaching me.”

“The woods? Why didn’t you say that you needed to head there, I could’ve gotten us there.”

Rian pauses when he listens to Jack. The information registers and he curses.

“That would’ve been better.”

“Well hold on, I can do that now.” Jack closes his eyes and the shadows around them start to swirl around him. Then against the side of the house, another doorway appears. Looking inside, it’s like a short hallway, and the opening at the end goes into the woods.

“Wow.”

“Mind hurrying? I don’t know how long I can keep this open,” Jack warns them.

The four of them run through the doorways and when they get through the shadows go back to their positions. Jack shakes and he falls to his knees.

“Jack!” Zack kneels next to him.

“I’m alright. Just never made a doorway that big before.”

Zack helps him to his feet and keeps his arm around him to keep him up. Alex turns his attention to Rian and looks away as he starts undressing.

“Dude!”

“Well I don’t want to ruin my clothes! The first time I transformed my clothes ripped.”

“Just give us a warning next time, alright?”

Rian ignores him and closes his eyes. He drops to his knees and feels his body starting to change. He opens his eyes after a couple minutes and when he looks at his friends, their eyes are all wide and their mouths are open.

“That was disgusting to watch,” Jack tells him.

Rian hardly reacts and shakes his head. He stands there for a moment and listens. Alex wants to feed tonight, so Rian’s gonna need to catch an animal for him. Then he runs off. A few minutes later he comes back with a rabbit in his jaws. He drops it at Alex’s feet.

“Thanks, Rian.”

He sits and nods. By then Zack and Jack take a seat on the ground. They reach over to pet Rian; at first he resists, but then he gives in. He closes his eyes and turns his head away. It feels pretty good.

Alex turns his attention to the rabbit and grabs it. His fangs come out and he turns his back to his friends when he sinks his teeth. The blood is tart but he doesn’t let that stop him. He finishes after a few minutes and sets the rabbit’s body down.

“All yours, Rian.” Alex uses his sleeve to wipe the blood off of his mouth and retracts his friends. Zack keeps his gaze on him and Alex feels confused. “What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes are still red.”

“They are?”

Zack nods.

“Oh. It’ll go back to normal soon.” He sits next to Jack and watches as Rian takes the rabbit’s body. He doesn’t eat it; he’s not hungry, so there’s no need.

“How often do you need to drink blood?”

“Depends on what kind of blood I drink. If it’s animal blood, usually every couple of days. With human blood, I only need to drink it once a week.”

“You’ve had human blood before?”

“Oh, right, you guys don’t know. Um, I kind of...drink Lisa’s blood?”

Rian turns to him as Zack and Jack’s eyes widen.

“What?”

“She knows I’m a vampire! And she came up with the idea herself!”

“Seriously?”

Alex nods and that seems to relax everyone. They don’t spend much more time out there, just an hour or so. Rian comes back to the group and changes, getting dressed while Jack opens another doorway.

They get back to the basement and Jack leans against Zack, who holds him up. The four of them get settled into their spots and they curl up. Not having to hide any secrets from each other helps them all relax, and it doesn’t take long before they all fall asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Alex is about to fall asleep in class. He doesn’t understand when he’ll ever use what he’s learning in his music career. The singer turns his attention to his notebook and begins to doodle on the page; the teacher would think that he’s taking notes anyway.

Alex looks over his shoulder when Jack nudges him and takes the piece of paper he slips him. He glances down and deciphers the scrawled writing.

_Meet up tonight?_

Alex nods and throws the paper into his bag. He can almost feel Jack grinning behind him. He wonders why Jack didn’t just project the thought into his head and save the trouble of getting caught. Then it’s as if Jack realizes that himself and he notices Rian jump. He hides a smile and continues to draw in his notebook, occasionally writing song lyrics when they come to mind.

Alex meets with Lisa a couple of classes later. Like usual, they sit next to each other and hold hands under the desk. They’d seen each other the day before but it still felt good to be around her.

“Hey,” he greets, sneaking a kiss on the cheek before the teacher walks in. Lisa smiles and squeezes his hand in response.

“Hey, handsome.”

They smile at each other, then turn their attention to the front as the bell rings and other students file in.

“The guys and I are going out again tonight,” he murmurs.

“Again? You guys went out a few days ago.”

Alex nods.

“I want you to come along with us.”

“I think I’d like that. I’ll be able to learn more about you guys.”

Alex smiles and he looks at Lisa, who smiles back. He would lean in to kiss her but class is starting and he knows they’ll get in trouble.

“Do you think the guys will mind if I tag along?” She asks under her breath.

“I don’t think so. They’ve been pretty cool since I told them you know about what we are.”

“Alex.”

Alex looks at the teacher as he gets his attention, blood rushing to the teenager’s cheeks.

“Yes?”

“Do you have something you’d like to share with the class?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Lisa?”

“No, unless the class wants to hear about the plans for our next date.”

Some of their classmates snicker and glance back at them while the teacher gives them a stern look.

“Just pay attention for the rest of class, okay?”

Alex and Lisa nod and the teacher moves on. He has to let go of her hand but she scoots her chair closer and he wraps his arm around her waist. The incident is shoved to the back of their minds.

Jack wants to roll his eyes as he comes back to reality; the way that Alex and Lisa behave would be disgustingly annoying if they weren’t so sweet with each other. But he holds himself back and turns his gaze back to his classmate’s presentation.

“Thank you, Madison.”

She finishes and as she’s going back to her desk and another student prepares to present, Rian taps his shoulder. Jack looks at him.

“Tell Zack.”

That’s all the information he needs. He nods and turns around, focusing on finding Zack in whatever class he’s in. It would be easier to do if he had his eyes closed, but he can’t look like he’s sleeping in class; that would just get the teacher’s attention and he’d have to start over again.

It takes a couple of minutes, but then he finds Zack. It’s weird; Jack hasn’t looked into his mind before, and the thought never really occurred to him. Ever since he tried looking into Alex’s mind he stopped messing with his friend’s thoughts.

Jack can tell this is Zack’s mind: it’s filled with music, and his friends, and questions about the universe. It makes sense, Zack reads a lot about finding someone’s place in the world. 

As much as he’d like to linger there, he doesn’t. He sends him the message and waits until he gets confirmation before coming back. Of course, Zack’s a little startled, but he agrees nonetheless.

He gives Rian a thumbs up and that’s the end of that. Well, it should’ve been, if he hadn’t gotten a splitting headache. Jack holds his head in his hands and the teacher notices.

“Jack, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I—no.”

“Here, head to the nurse’s office.” The teacher hands him a slip and Jack stands. He doesn’t realize he’s falling until Rian catches him.

“I’ll take him.”

The teacher nods and Rian helps Jack out of the room. By the time they get to the nurse’s office, Jack can stand and walk on his own.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, just never tried to get inside someone’s head from so far away. I’ll be fine.”

Rian nods and pats him on the shoulder, then heads back to class.

* * *

“How long are the two of them gonna be in there? I could’ve transformed already.”

“Then why haven’t you?” Zack asks Rian, not looking up from the book he’s reading. He wants to finish it before he has to return it to the library in a couple of days.

 _These lights need to be brighter_ , he thinks.

“My body says it’s not time yet.” Jack and Zack both feel surprised at the statement, but Zack doesn’t look away from his book.

“Your body?” Jack looks up from his guidebook.

“Yeah. I don’t control when I turn into a wolf, my body just knows and I gotta listen to it.”

“So the moon doesn’t control it either?”

“Nope. It _does_ act like a schedule, though. It’s strongest around the full moon, obviously. Around the new moon, turning isn’t too urgent.”

“We gotta start writing this stuff down,” Zack comments. He puts the bookmark in place and puts the book in his back as he sits up. Having the whole backseat all to himself for the past couple of hours definitely had its advantages.

“We should let Alex and Lisa know, if they ever finish what they’re doing and leave his car,” Jack mumbles.

“Honestly. If he’s still drinking from her, she’d be dead by now.”

“Jack, why don’t you see what they’re doing in there?” Rian asks.

Jack shakes his head.

“No fucking way. Not again.”

“Again?” Zack leans forward.

“Yeah, again. Okay, well, I didn’t look into his mind while it happened, but some time after. I think he was thinking about the night Lisa found out that he’s a vampire. They were in the woods, and it didn’t take long before they had sex. And, I don’t know, I just don’t feel comfortable invading my friend’s privacy like that. You know, anymore.”

Rian nods.

“I can see why.”

“Do you think they’re…” Zack trails off. Rian and Jack look back at him as realization crosses over their faces.

“I don’t want to think about that, the thought of Alex and Lisa...it’s been haunting me since I saw it.” 

Jack shrugs it off, looking forward and turning the radio on. A blink-182 song fills the air. A few minutes later, they see Alex and Lisa leave the car and they walk over. Jack turns the lights in the car off before getting out.

“It takes two hours to drink some blood?” Rian asks.

“Oh, shut the fuck up and take your clothes off.”

Jack and Zack start laughing while Alex puts a hand over his face.

“That didn’t come out right.”

Rian smiles a bit and shakes his head.

“Whatever. Taking my clothes off.”

Everyone turns away while Rian undresses. Alex and Lisa hold hands and Jack and Zack glance at each other.

“So what _were_ the two of you doing in there?”

“Catching up,” Alex answers, maybe a little too fast. Lisa nods in agreement and looks at him, a slight smile on her face.

“But didn’t the two of you—nevermind. I actually don’t want to know.” Jack shivers at the thought.

A bark lets them know they can turn around and when they do a wolf is standing where Rian was. He doesn’t wait for them before bounding in a random direction. The others run after him. He stops in a clearing and he sniffs around.

“What’s he looking for?” Lisa asks.

“Any other werewolves in the area. They’re pretty territorial,” Alex explains.

“Can’t you do anything about that? You know, to help him out?”

Alex shakes his head.

“Rian said it’s better if I don’t get involved unless he needs me too. It’s that way with all of us.”

Lisa nods in understanding and watches Rian as he inspects the area. It’s weird to see one of her friends as a wolf, but at the same time it’s fascinating.

Jack waves his hand and closes his eyes. He can’t sense anything else in the shadows so he assumes they’re all safe.

“I couldn’t find anything with us.”

Rian barks in a soft tone, and he takes that as his agreement. He doesn’t stay long, running off as something catches his ear.

“Where’s he going?” Lisa asks.

“Probably to hunt something. He hasn’t had anything to eat since lunch.”

“So what are you guys gonna do?”

“I’m gonna watch these two idiots as they practice their magic shit,” Alex answers, wrapping an arm around her waist.

“We’re not idiots!”

“Stop, Jack. Maybe he’s right, and we _are_ idiots.”

“See, Zack agrees—” Alex gets cut off as something hits the back of his head. He turns, and while whatever hit him is gone, he sees a blue glow lingering.

“That’s what you get for calling us idiots!”

Alex jumps at them and Zack holds him back at arm’s length. Jack tries to pry the singer away.

“Lisa, help us!”

She shakes her head, and all she does is laugh as she takes her camera out of her bag. She didn’t think she’d have this much fun when she’d tag along tonight.


	14. Chapter 14

Hours later, the teenagers head back to the cars. Alex and Lisa wave to the others before heading to his car. Jack and Rian get into the front while Zack takes his place in the backseat.

“Oh god, we have school in the morning,” Zack remembers.

Jack and Rian groan.

“How much sleep can we get before we need to wake up?”

Rian checks the time.

“About three hours, and that’s if we’re ten minutes late.”

“Ugh.”

“Whatever. Let’s head home.” Jack starts the car and puts it into reverse. He doesn’t get very far before Rian grabs his shoulder.

“Dude!”

“What?” Jack steps on the brakes.

Rian scans the woods in front of them and narrows his eyes. After a couple seconds he leans back and shakes his head, rubbing his eyes.

“I thought I saw a vampire.”

“It was probably just Alex.”

“But it wasn’t, unless Alex suddenly developed long blonde hair and a pair of boobs.”

“Wait, what?” Jack turns the car off and looks at the treeline.

The car’s quiet as the three of them look for anything moving in the woods. It takes a few minutes before they see movement, and then a face. Even with all the distance between them, they can see the girl’s red eyes and fangs glinting in the soft light.

“Hey, doesn’t that look like Amanda?” Jack points at her.

“Yeah, it does.”

Rian and Jack look at each other, both coming to the silent realization that she’s a vampire.

“Hey guys? Is it a good thing that Amanda’s walking over to us?”

Jack and Rian glance at Zack and then back at the girl. He’s right, she’s walking over.

“It’s too late to deal with this.” Jack starts the car again and pulls back, hitting the road. Alex follows closely behind.

“So Amanda’s a vampire?” Zack speaks up.

“Looks like it.”

“Shouldn’t that be a bigger deal to us?”

“What do you mean?” Rian moves to look back at him.

“Like, up until now the four of us thought we’re the only supernatural beings in the city, at least. And now we’re finding out that there’s more that we weren’t aware of, and we don’t know what they’re like.”

“What they’re like?” Jack repeats.

“You know, you me, Rian, Alex, the only thing we want is to control what we are while also living our lives despite that. But we don’t know if Amanda feels the same way.”  
The car goes quiet again. Jack shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair.

“It’s too early to think about any of that. Let’s talk it over tomorrow.”

“Practice at my house?” Rian asks.

“Yep.”

“Sounds good.”

It only takes a few minutes until Jack pulls into his driveway. He assists Rian and Zack in going straight to their rooms before doing the same for himself. He steps out of the shadows and into his room, immediately face-planting onto his bed and falling asleep.

“Why’d you guys stop last night?” Alex asks, shoving his books in his locker.

“I saw another vampire in the woods.”

“What do you mean, _another_ vampire?”

“Rian saw Amanda, and she had red eyes and vampire fangs,” Jack explains.

Alex’s eyes widen and he shuts his locker. This isn’t like the older werewolf that comes around and helps Rian sometimes; another one of their peers is supernatural, just like them. And they all thought they were the only ones in the school.

“Are you guys sure you didn’t mix her up with someone else.”

“Dude, we’re telling you: we saw Amanda with fangs in her mouth, clear as day.”

“So what do you want to do about it? Just ask her straight up?”

“Ask who straight up?”

The three boys jump as they realize Amanda’s standing next to them. They glance at each other and debate telling her that they know. Maybe she hadn’t seen them clearly last night.

“Is this about last night?” She asks.

“Uh—”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rian says, shaking his head. The three of them rush off before she can ask any more questions, and the first bell rings.

“Thank god,” Jack breathes.

“See you guys later.”

Rian heads to his class and Jack and Alex walk into their homeroom. When they meet up at lunch, they can finally feel themselves relaxing.

“Does anyone else feel like we’re being watched?” Lisa asks.

“You felt that too?”

“Yeah, and what was with Amanda last night? I didn’t know she’s a vampire.”

“You saw that?”

“Yeah. What, you guys think all Alex and I do when we’re alone together is make out and have sex?”

Jack and Rian don’t say anything. Alex notices Amanda and stiffens when he catches her eye.

“Uh, guys, Amanda’s walking over.”

“She’s _what_?”

Alex doesn’t have any time to repeat what he said before she slides in next to Lisa. All they can do is stare and she stares back.

“So you guys want to talk about last night, or what?”

The boys exchange glances. 

“Look, I just need to know that you guys won’t tell people that I’m, you know, a—”

“—vampire?” Alex finishes.

Amanda nods.

“Yeah, that.”

“Trust us, we’re not gonna go spreading that rumor around town,” Rian assures her.

“We can swear on it if it’ll make you feel better.”

Amanda shakes her head.

“No, no. Thanks guys. I just wanted to be sure that no one else would find out.” She stands and turns to leave, then turns back to them. “Hey, um. What were you guys doing out in the woods so late anyway?”

Jack hesitates but Rian answers.

“Just hanging out. We wanted to be away from the rest of town.”

“And Alex and I were on a date.”

Amanda nods. They can almost hear the gears turning in her head but she doesn’t give them much time to think about it before she walks back to her table. When she’s gone, everyone relaxes as if they’d all been holding their breaths.

“Thank god,” Jack mumbles.

“Good thinking on your feet, Rian.”

“Thanks, but what else was I supposed to tell her? The truth?”

The thought is alarming to them, and they don’t consider it. Jack rips a page out of his notebook and scribbles something on it, then sends it through its shadow on the table.

“What are you doing?”

“Sending a note to Zack. Just wanted to let him know what happened.”

“How’d you figure out that you can do that instead of projecting…” Alex lowers his voice as another kid walks by.

“It was an accident; I’d knocked my book over while I was talking to Zack, and then he said it appeared in his room. I figured I could do the same with notes.”

Just like that, the paper appeared back on the table, a blue glow around it and more writing a few lines below Jack’s.

“What did you tell him?”

“Just told him about the Amanda situation. He says he’s relieved that Rian didn’t tell her the truth. And he thinks a kid at his school’s like us too.”

The four of them lean over the paper and read Zack’s handwriting, like no one can really believe that there’s _more_ people like them.

“Well this day just keeps getting better and better.” 

* * *

“I don’t think Amanda’s gonna show up again tonight,” Alex reasons, taking Lisa’s hand.

“Why’s that?”

“Even if she just had animal blood, it’ll take another day or two before she’ll have to feed again.”

Lisa nods. Jack, Rian, and Zack get out of their car and head over to them. It doesn’t take long before they head into the woods.

“Do you think we’ll actually be able to practice tonight, or are we gonna have another repeat of last night?” 

“What do you mean?” Rian questions.

“Oh right, you were off hunting when it happened. Basically Jack and I messed with Alex instead of actually practicing anything.”

“And I got pictures on my camera if you want to see them,” Lisa chimes in.

“What kind of pictures?”

Everyone jumps when they hear Amanda’s voice. Just like the night before, her eyes are red and fangs poke out of her mouth. It’s clear no one expected to see her there.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Alex asks.

“I knew something was up with you guys. I recognized you guys pulling away last night, and you guys acting weird this morning just confirmed it. I thought that was the end of it, but then at lunch I realized there was something else about you. But I can’t put my finger on it.”

It’s silent, and everyone can feel the tension.

“Why do you care? We all promised not to tell anyone about you.”

“I care because I can tell none of you are human, either.”

The friends glance at each other and share a questioning look. No one knows what to do.

“Relax, guys. I won’t tell anyone, if you tell me what you guys are.”

They all glance at each other again. It’s not like they can risk anyone finding out that they’re not human, and if this is what they had to do to make sure their secrets are kept safe, then did they really have a choice?

“Fine. I’m a vampire too.”

“Werewolf.”

“I’m a demon.”

Zack raised his hand, which has a soft blue glow around it.

“Sorcerer.”

Amanda’s eyes widen in wonder and a smirk makes its way onto her face. Something in her expression makes it look like she’s amused by what they’ve said.

“Wow. Well, as promised, I won’t tell anyone about you guys. Since you did the same for me.”

“Thanks. We’d appreciate that.”

Amanda nods, then her eyes light up.

“Do you guys know about the other monsters in town? Some of them go to our school, and Zack’s, I think. We all might be able to help you guys.”

“What?” Alex looks back at the others. No one knows what to think about the news.

“The other monsters and I could help you guys, if you want. Just think about it and get back to me later. Have fun tonight.”

In a flash, Amanda’s gone.

“So what do you guys want to do about that?” Zack asks them.

“No idea. But frankly, I don’t want to think about that right now. Let’s get going.”

The rest of the trip into the woods is made in a tense silence.


	15. Chapter 15

A week had passed since the boys saw Amanda in the woods, and since then she’s tried to become one of their allies. She even introduced them to a couple of other monsters that she knows and offered to head out with them at night.

Amanda walks by their table again and they know they have to make up their mind.

“Do you guys really think we can trust her?” Jack asks.

“Do we have a choice?”

“ _Yes_ , Rian. We don’t have to hang around her just because she’s a vampire and she knows our secret.” Lisa nudges Rian and Alex takes his hand.

“Maybe we don’t have to, but it could be nice to be friends with other…” Alex can’t bring himself to say the word, “...you know. They seem more experienced than we are.”

Rian shrugs.

“I guess that would be good.”

“I still don’t know,” Jack says. He gets out a pen and paper and writes a note to Zack. 

“What’s your problem? You had the hots for Amanda last year, now you don’t trust her?”

“It’s just a gut instinct, I guess. There’s something about her that’s just rubbing me the wrong way, but I can’t see what it is because she’ll know.”

“How is she gonna know?”

“She’s looking over at us right now,” Jack points over his shoulder and the others can see Amanda looking their way. When they catch her gaze, she looks away.

“We should at least give her a chance.”

Jack looks up at Alex and sighs. He knows he won’t win this one, so she shrugs and turns his attention back to the paper.

“Fine.”

Amanda walks up to the table again. She stands like she’s confident in their answer, but her eyes give away her uncertainty.

“Hey guys—”

“You can stop checking on us every five minutes. We’ll go out with you and your friends tonight,” Alex tells her. Her eyes widen and she stands up a little straighter.

“Really?”

He nods.

“Okay, um, great. Woods tonight?”

“See you then.”

Amanda starts to walk back to her table, but then she turns back to them.

“We’re talking monsters only, right?”

Everyone stiffens, and Rian and Jack glance at Lisa. Alex keeps a protective arm wrapped around her waist and keeps her close to him. Lisa has a look in her eyes, and it’s easy to see how pissed off she is.

“But Lisa’s part of the group,” Alex protests.

“I know, but I also know how important she is to you, and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“I don’t think that’s—”

“It’s fine, guys. I’ll stay home tonight.”

Amanda and Lisa look at each other and hold each other’s gazes for a few seconds. Then Amanda walks off and Lisa looks away.

“Lisa, are you okay?” Jack asks her.

“No, not really! I hate how she acts like I’m defenseless. I’m not! And she acts like she can’t tell that I’m—”

The bell rings, and Alex grabs Lisa’s stuff and pulls her along. Jack and Rian glance at each other as they gather their bags and head to class.

“What was that about?”

“No idea,” Rian shrugs. “Did you let Zack know about tonight?”

“Yeah, he said he’d be there.” He shows him the paper with Zack’s handwriting, and then they head off to class.

“I thought they’d be here by now,” Jack grumbles.

“Would you relax? They’re just a couple minutes late.” Alex crosses his arms as he leans against a tree, glancing around. “I don’t see why you’re being so paranoid about Amanda.”

“I can just sense something _off_ about her, alright? It’s not like I’m saying that just to piss you guys off.”

“I’m not saying that’s why you’re—guys, come on, back me up here.”

“I’m not saying that Alex is right, but you should really give Amanda some more time. Maybe the feeling will go away.”

“Thanks, Rian,” Jack says, his voice laced with sarcasm.

Alex rolls his eyes and looks at Zack.

“What do you think?”

Zack shrugs. 

“Don’t drag me into this. If we can’t trust her, we’ll find out at some point.”

After a few minutes of tense silence, Amanda walks into the clearing. There’s another girl following her, and a wolf behind them. Amanda finishes wiping her face as she sees them, a smile making its way onto her face.

“Hey, guys. Sorry for the wait, Veronica and I had some things to take care of.” She motions to the wolf. “This is Tyler. You guys ready?”

“Just wait for Rian to turn, then we’ll be all set,”

“What did you have in mind tonight, anyway?” Jack asks.

“I was thinking we could help you guys really get in touch with your monster side, and then see where it goes from there.”

Jack glances at the others. No one seems to have any objections, so he has to go along with it.

“What’s Veronica?”

“A demon. I thought the two of you would get along real well.”

Jack stiffens and he avoids Veronica’s gaze. A bark cuts through the area and they see Rian’s finished changing.

“Ready to go?”

“Looks like we are.”

The group follows Amanda and Zack makes his way to Jack’s side.

“Still think something’s up?”

Jack nods.

“I just wish I could prove it.” 

* * *

The weekend couldn’t have come any faster. Jack offers to have the others stay at his house for the night. Things are getting better with his family, but things are still a bit tense.

“My mom’s gonna have dinner ready in a couple of hours,” Jack tells them as he opens the front door. He waves to his mom as he heads up to his room, dropping off his bag there. Zack follows him.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“How are things here?” Zack asks in a hushed tone.

“Getting better. But they’re still kind of tense.”

“You know I still have room for you if you ever need to spend the night.”

Jack allows the tiniest smile to make its way onto his face.

“Thanks, Zack.” Then he pulls him into a hug. The two of them stay there for a couple of minutes before they remember they have to get back to their friends.

The two boys walk into the living room, where Alex and Rian are on the couch fighting over the remote. Lisa’s standing off to the side with a drink in her hand.

“Did you ever have to deal with this with Joe and Jack?” She asks his mom.

“No, just with Jack and his friends.” She places a kiss on Jack’s head and he doesn’t bother pretending he doesn’t like it. Things are starting to feel like they’re going back to normal.

The front door opens and Jack’s dad walks in. Jack smiles, not expecting him back so soon.

“Dad, you’re back home early.” He hugs him and his mom joins in. Jack’s dad nods and pulls back. He walks into the living room, getting the attention of everyone.

“My boss let me leave early.”

“Is there something wrong?” Jack’s mom asks. His dad nods.

“May I have the remote, please?”

Alex hands the remote to him, and the man turns the TV on to a news station. As soon as he settles on the channel, censored pictures of a crime scene in the woods appears on-screen. Jack’s mom turns away but doesn’t move from her husband’s side. The room quiets enough to hear the reporter speaking.

“This morning, the bodies of four teenagers were recovered in the woods. The identities of the bodies have yet to be confirmed, however it is known that they attended a nearby high school.”

A picture of the school Jack goes to appears and everyone tenses up. Jack’s mom takes her son’s hand and squeezes it.

“Police believe these murders are connected to another case, the case of the student missing from another local high school.”

The program cuts to an image of Zack’s school and everyone stiffens again, if that’s even possible at this point. Dread fills the room so quickly it feels like everyone’s drowning in it.

Jack’s dad turns the TV off and sets the remote down. Everyone else is silent and frozen in place. No one knows what to say until the panic sets in.

“I need to call my parents!” Alex stands and the other teenagers rush for their bags.

“It’s alright! I’ve already called them and told them you’re all safe.”

They relax and sit down again. Jack’s mom pulls him into a hug and kisses his forehead once more; the news isn’t easy on any of them.

“Hey, uh, Mrs. Barakat? Do you mind if we head to Jack’s room?” Alex asks.

“Of course, hon. Go right ahead.” She lets go of Jack and allows the teenagers to go to his room.

As soon as they’re all inside, Jack shuts the door behind them. He lays back on the bed and stares at the ceiling. No one says anything for the first few minutes. Then Zack pipes up.

“Do you think we could find out who did it?”

Jack sits up and everyone stares at Zack. It feels so obvious, like they should’ve thought of it sooner.

“Maybe. What are you thinking?”

“Well, Jack needs to—”

Jack puts his hand up. 

“I get the idea.” He stands and finds a shadow in the room, putting his hand to it. Then he closes his eyes and his mind travels through the shadows. It takes several minutes before he finds the bodies. They’re being moved to the morgue but it doesn’t matter; he stays with them.

“Okay, I found them. Now what?”

“I’m gonna guess you can’t project into their minds and see what happened,” Alex says.

“Jack, I’m gonna take your hand. Do you think you can lead me to the bodies?”

“I think so.”

“Okay. Once I’m there I think I can use my powers to see what happened to them.”

Jack holds his hand out and Zack takes it. A blue glow emits from their hands and the room is quiet as Lisa, Alex, and Rian watch them. Zack’s face goes relaxed, and then surprised, then for a quick second before he cries out in pain and drops to the floor. Jack takes his hand off the wall and opens his eyes.

“What the hell happened?” Alex asks. He helps Zack up, but Zack is too in pain to do so.

“Something knocked us back here,” Jack explains. “Whatever it was, it affected Zack. It’ll take some time for him to recover.”

“What could’ve done that?”

“My best guess? Another demon.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Another _demon_?” Lisa asks.

Jack nods.

“How are you so sure?”

“Demons have a certain kind of energy. Being one, I know what it feels like. I swear, just as Zack was figuring out what happened the demon sensed us and sent us back here.”

“How did they even do that?” Zack asks, rubbing his head.

“They must’ve projected a spell into our heads or something. One strong enough to send us all the way across town again.”

Lisa sits next to Zack and puts her fingers to his temples, rubbing circles against them. Zack relaxes and appears to start feeling better.

“Was the demon involved in the murders?” Alex asks.

“They could’ve been. It makes sense: they were lingering at the scene and they didn’t want anyone finding out what they did.”

A tense silence falls over the room. An unanswered question is running through everyone’s minds, but no one wants to voice it. It’s just going to open the floodgates of questions and horrible possibilities, none of which they’d like to think about. They’re feeling shitty enough as is.

“Is anyone else wondering why those kids were—”

“Shut up, Alex.” Rian hits his shoulder. Alex hits him back and Jack gets in between them to get them to stop.

“How are you feeling, Zack?”

“Better now. God, that spell fucking hurt.”

“It should start feeling better soon. But don’t use too much of your magic until tomorrow, or else the pain is gonna come back.”

“Thanks, Lisa.”

They quiet down once more and settle down. Jack lays back on his bed as his mind drifts to the news report, and he can’t help but think about the murdered students. The situation bothers him.

Why would a demon need to kill some teenagers? Maybe that was something they needed—or wanted—to do a few hundred years ago when things didn’t work out the way they planned. But today? Why? The situation just doesn’t sit right with him. Besides, how many demons are there in Baltimore?

Jack comes back to earth when he feels someone nudging him. He sits up and sees Zack sitting at the foot of his bed. His friend has a worried look on his face.

“What are you thinking about?”

Jack doesn’t answer and looks down at his lap.

“The kids?” Zack guesses.

Jack nods.

“I don’t know why but it’s just bothering me.”

“It’s bothering all of us. Kids we knew were killed. None of us like thinking about that.”

“No, that’s not it,” Jack shakes his head. “It’s just, why would a demon need to kill some teenagers? Even if things didn’t go according to plan, demons can just manipulate human’s memories and make them forget. Murdering people left and right just draws too much attention and that would ruin their plans. So why kill those kids?”

Zack’s quiet as he takes the information in. He has a questioning look in his eyes.

“Do you think something...I don’t know, sinister, is going on, then?”

“Maybe. It’s the only option that makes sense right now.”  
'  
“Great. First we had to deal with finding out what we are, and then Amanda and her friends, and now this. Life’s fucking perfect.” 

* * *

“Hey guys. Ready to go out again tonight?”

The boys don’t even bother to look at Amanda as she stops by their table. Alex doesn’t look up from his phone as he answers.

“We’re not going out tonight. We all decided to stay in.”

Amanda stiffens and she glances over the table. The others don’t react and she can hardly hide her surprise.

“Wow. Alright, um, but I just thought—we’ve all been going out for the past week, so I just figured, you know….”

“We get it. But we all just wanna stay at home tonight; it’s been a while since we all spent some time with our families,” Rian explains. Amanda doesn’t relax.

“Of course, but doesn’t Alex need to—”

“Nope, don’t need to feed. Did that today, so I’m good for the week.”

“Look, Amanda, we just need a break from the supernatural stuff, okay? It’s not like that’s all there is to us, anyway. We do have lives outside of that,: Zack shrugs.

Amanda opens her mouth to speak, but her boss calls her back to work. She leaves the table after hesitating for a second, and as she leaves Lisa walks over. Alex nudges Rian and they slide over to make room for her.

“I got the articles you asked for,” she tells Jack. She reaches into her bag and hands him a small stack of papers, all newspaper articles cut out of the paper. Jack accepts them and shoves them into his backpack.

“So why did you guys meet at the diner Amanda works at?” She asks them.

“We didn’t know that she works here until we sat down. Anyway, Zack, do you have the spells for us?”

“Yeah, I got them last night. I’ll cast them after dinner.”

“What’s the spells for?” Lisa asks.

“They’re protection spells, specifically against other supernatural beings. We want to keep our families safe.”

“I think I can help with that too.”

“Yeah? How so?”

“Didn’t Alex tell you? I’m a witch.”

Jack, Rian, and Zack stare at her and then glance at Alex. The singer’s cheeks blush as he takes Lisa’s hand under the table.

“I knew there was something I was forgetting to tell you guys.”

Zack gets over the shock and shakes his head, turning to Lisa.

“So how do you think you can help?”

“I can give you guys some charms to give your families. I don’t really know how effective they’ll be, I’ve still got a lot to learn, but they should be able to do _something_.”

“Hey, I’ll take what I can get,” Jack tells her. The others agree.

“Great! I’ll stop by later after I’ve had some time to make them.” She grabs a notepad out of her bag and scribbles a reminder to herself.

“Here, take this.” Zack hands her a piece of paper.

“The spells?”

“You can use them, can’t you?”

“Of course. The only problem is I can’t read them.”

“Shit, right. Aperire animo.”

Lisa looks at the paper in wonder as the spells translate, then she smiles. For the rest of the meal the teenagers discuss the plans for that night.

Jack makes sure his parents are asleep before he heads outside. Earlier, before dinner, he made sure to put Lisa’s protection charm in his parents’ room, and now as he stands outside, he can see the faint blue glow of Zack’s spell around the house. It makes him feel better knowing his parents are safe.

His phone rings and he answers. Zack put him on a group call with the others.

“Hey guys.”

“Have any of you seen anything lately?” Alex asks. “I thought I could sense something in my backyard but when I checked nothing was there.”

“Nothing at my house,” Zack reports.

“It’s quiet here, too.”

“I don’t know yet, I just got outside.”

“Seriously?”

“What? My parents stay up late, give me a break,” Jack huffs. He sets the phone on the ground and takes out the articles that Lisa gave him that afternoon. He’d already read through every article several times over, he could almost recite each one from memory. But he doesn’t need the articles to read.

“Have any of us thought out what we’re gonna do if we actually see something tonight?” Zack asks the others. There’s a few seconds of silence.

“I think Alex and Rian are gonna be fine, actually. You and I are the ones that tried to figure out who killed those teenagers, so we’re more likely to be targets.”

“God, that’s right.”

“Do you want me and Alex to join you guys tonight?”

Jack considers the offer.

“Maybe that’s a good idea. I’m gonna try to find those kids again; I want to see if Zack and I can figure out what happened this time.

“How is Zack gonna be able to do that from his house?” Alex asks.

“I’ll use the shadows again and connect him to the morgue. Zack, do you think you’ll be able to do that?”

“As long as I don’t get blocked by that demon again, yeah, I think that’ll work.”

“Can’t you just cast a protection spell around yourself so that doesn’t happen again?” Rian questions.

The line is quiet. There’s shuffling and Jack can hear something behind him. When he turns, he sees Alex there and he jumps, but then he relaxes. Alex puts his hands up and hangs up from the call. Then Rian breaks the silence.

“Alright Zack, I’m here.”

Then Rian hangs up.

“Just let me know when you need me to cast the spells, Jack.”

He nods and sets the phone down, closing his eyes. Jack doesn’t have to move from where he’s sitting to find the shadows. With one hand, he lets his mind wander over to Zack’s house. He finds him in the front yard, just a step out of reach. With the other hand, his mind finds the morgue. He nods and Alex picks up the phone.

“Okay Zack, looks like he’s there.”

Zack steps into the shadows and closes his eyes. His lips move slightly as his hands begin to glow. Jack can see the morgue start to shine brighter. Then, like it’s out of the scene of a movie, the teenager’s memories fill the room. It’s amazing, to him anyway.

The room transforms into the woods, and he can see the four teenagers running. They all look terrified, and like they haven’t slept in days. It doesn’t take a genius to know that they were running for their lives.

But from what?

Flashes of blue follow the kids but Jack can’t make out what they are. They surround the kids, and they huddle together. There’s no sound, but it’s easy to see that they’re begging for their lives.

It doesn’t work. In a second, they fall to the ground, dead.

The scene disappears and the room darkens again. Something catches Jack’s ear and he has to sever the connection between Zack and the morgue without warning him. When he opens his eyes, he sees Alex fighting a shadowy figure.

“Alex!”

Jack stands and steps outside the protection spell. Without thinking he summons the nearby shadows and launches them at the figure. It knocks them over and they let go of Alex.

“Get in the circle!’

Alex does as he’s told and backs up until he reaches the front porch. Jack turns his attention back to the figure, which catches him off-guard. They latch onto him with the shadows, but he doesn’t relent.

Jack grabs the shadows and tugs on them, and for a second he can see who’s underneath the darkness. Then it shifts, and they’re hidden again. He yanks once more and he thinks he can see a flash of long brown hair and blue eyes, but then the figure disappears. He stands there for a second before heading back to check on Alex.

“Are you okay? How the fuck did that get here?”

“I don’t know, it just appeared a couple minutes after you and Zack went to wherever. I tried to get your attention but you guys were in too deep.” Alex runs a hand through his hair. “What did you guys see in there, anyway?”

“Zack and I will tell you guys tomorrow. Clearly there’s something supernatural involved or that demon wouldn’t have tried to kill us.”


	17. Chapter 17

About a week after the incident, Jack is still looking into the murders. Knowing that a demon is involved with the cover-up is setting off alarm bells in his head. He hates it.

“Hey, Jack.”

He’s pulled from his thoughts as he hears a familiar voice next to him and he sighs. The boy shuts his locker and walks towards the cafeteria, refusing to look at the girl following him. She doesn’t get the hint.

“Is something wrong?” Veronica asks.

“No. I just want to sit with my friends, okay?”

“I’ll sit with you—”

“No.”

“What?”

“I don’t want you to sit with me and my friends. Look, Veronica,” he stops and turns to the girl, “I don’t really know you, and you seem like a sweet girl. But just because we’re both—”

Jack interrupts himself as some other students walk by them.

“—just because we’re both demons doesn’t mean we have to fall in love and get married. And being honest, I’m getting sick of it.”

Veronica doesn’t say anything, she just nods and looks away. Jack turns to leave, but he stops when he hears her voice.

“Can we still be friends?”

Jack sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

“Sure.”

Then he walks into the cafeteria and makes his way to their usual table. He sits next to Rian and shoves his bag under the table. 

“What kept you?”

“Veronica.”

The boys nod and Lisa doesn’t need any more explanation. Jack gets his notebooks out and turns to the notes at the back. He’s busy studying them while the others continue with their conversation.

“Jack.”

He snaps his head up and looks at Alex as he says his name. It’s obvious he missed something in the conversation.

“What?”

“Did you not hear us?”

“Hear what?”

“Alex and I were talking about Amanda and her friends.”

Jack stiffens at the mention of Amanda and it’s like he can sense her looking over at them.

“What about them?”

“Haven’t you noticed how in the past week they haven’t been joining us at night?”

“She hasn’t even been talking to us during the day,” Lisa points out.

Jack thinks about the past few days and realizes they’re right. He wants to look over at Amanda’s table but he knows that’ll draw too much attention to them.

“What are you saying?” He asks.

The table’s quiet for a couple minutes.

“I don’t really know. It just seems weird that they haven’t been around lately.”

Jack nods. Is that the reason that Veronica’s trying to get so close to him? Or does she just have a crush on him? He shakes his head and rubs his eyes.

_Don’t think about that._

“So what do you want to do about that? Ask them what’s going on?” He suggests.

Alex and Rian exchange glances, then shake their heads.

“They’re not gonna tell us what’s going on anyway. And I think we owe you an apology.”

“What for?”

“Saying you were paranoid about Amanda. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about her myself,” Alex admits.

Jack looks over at Amanda’s table. At first it looks like they have no idea that he’s staring, but when he looks closer he can see how they’re avoiding looking in their direction. They know something’s bothering them.

“You should have a bad feeling. I think she’s figuring out that we’re onto her.” 

* * *

“I don’t know how good of an idea this is,” Zack says. He’s hesitant to take Jack’s hand and go through with invading Amanda’s privacy.

“What if they find out?”

Jack glances at Lisa, then returns his gaze to Zack.

“I know it seems bad, and it probably is, but we’ll be able to see what’s going on with Amanda and her friends.”

Zack looks at Alex and Rian, quietly hoping one of them will take his side and convince Jack to let this go. They don’t, and Zack sighs. He takes Jack’s hand.

“Keep Amanda and the others distracted,” Jack instructs. Alex and Rian nod.

“As long as I’m there, I don’t think that’ll be too much trouble. I still don’t think that she can tell I’m a witch.”

Jack nods, and before any more time can pass, he walks with Zack into the shadows. It doesn’t take long to reach Amanda’s house, and they head up to her room.

“Okay, let’s go.” Zack takes a step forward, but Jack pulls him back.

“Wait. Let’s make sure she’s gone first.”

Jack closes his eyes and looks through the other shadows in the room. Once he’s sure that the room is empty, he opens his eyes and gives the okay.

Zack flicks his wrist and they both step inside. When they walk around the room their footsteps emit a blue glow. Jack gives his friend a questioning look.

“To make sure her parents can’t hear us,” Zack whispers to him. Jack nods. “So what are we even looking for, anyway?”

“I don’t know, really. Just—when I remembered the memories of those kids, I tried to make out what killed them. And then out of nowhere I got a feeling that Amanda had something to do with it. I wanted to see if there was anything to back up that feeling.”

Zack nods.

“Okay. Let’s get to looking around.”

The two boys are careful not to disturb much of Amanda’s belongings; they know better than to leave hints that they were there. Zack uses his magic to search the room, walking around. He stops by the bed and motions to Jack.

“Something’s there.”

Then Zack flicks his wrist and a beat up journal appears in their sights. Jack grabs the journal and nods.

“My gut is telling me this is it. This is what’s causing the bad feeling.”

Zack opens the journal and the two of them read through the entries. They flip forward a few pages and their eyes widen. As they continue to read, the feeling in their guts gets worse and worse.

Then the shock and horror sets in, and Jack rushes them out of the room.

“We need to get to the others!” 

* * *

Rian leads the way through the woods as he picks up Amanda’s trail. Alex and Lisa follow close behind the wolf, all of them being careful not to make much noise.

“Can’t you pick up their scent?” Lisa asks Alex.

“Not really. I can pick up the smell of blood, but that doesn’t work on other vampires. I can sense them but only if they’re nearby.”

Lisa sighs and they bump into Rian. He growls at them and they take a couple steps back. Then Rian points his nose in front of them and they get the hint. Lisa stays behind while Alex sneaks ahead. He doesn’t get very far before he grits his teeth and clutches his stomach.

“Alex,” Lisa whispers. Rian nudges her, his fur brushing against her fingers. Alex makes his way over to them without drawing attention.

“Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” Lisa asks him.

“It’s been over a week.”

Lisa nods. Rian looks between them, then groans and turns away when Alex bites into Lisa’s neck.

A sound in the distance catches Rian’s attention and he turns around. A couple of familiar scents fill his nose but he can’t place them. That frustrates him. He walks in the direction the scents are coming from and almost jumps when Jack and Zack appear. They seem panicked and in a hurry, so he leads them back to Alex and Lisa. By the time they get back Alex and Lisa are looking at the clearing ahead. Tyler and Amanda are visible and seem to be waiting around for something.

“Guys, Zack and I found—”

“Shh!” Alex motions to the scene and they all quiet down. Everyone watches as Veronica brings a few other people into the clearing.

They’re all too far away to hear what they’re saying but that doesn’t matter. They can see Tyler change into his wolf form; Rian’s fur bristles at the sight. The people Veronica brought are visibly scared and they try to run. Veronica doesn’t let them; she manipulates the shadows and boxes them in the area.

Amanda and her friends advance on the people. The teenagers turn away from the scene and try not to think about the murders going on in front of them.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Lisa mumbles.

“We need to get out of here.” Jack pulls on Alex and Lisa and they jump to their feet.

As the five of them start running off, one of them trips on a branch. It doesn’t matter who it is, it catches the attention of Amanda.

“Shit!”

Jack acts quickly and the five of them disappear into the shadows. Without thinking about it, they fall into Rian’s basement and land on one another.

“That was too fucking close,” Zack groans as he pushes Rian off of him. He takes the opportunity to turn human again and he wraps a blanket around himself.

“Guys, you really need—”

“Rian, where’s the first-aid kit?” Lisa asks. She has a hand covering her nose and mouth and everyone can smell blood. 

“Upstairs, but we can’t get it. My parents are asleep!”

“Just get it!” Alex hisses.

“I can’t! My mom’s gonna hear us! And she’s gonna wonder what I’m doing—”

“Keep it down, we’ll wake up Rian’s parents!” Zack warns.

All too late they hear footsteps above them and they run into the corner. Just to be safe, Jack covers them in shadows and Zack turns the TV on with his magic. When Rian’s mom comes down and looks around the room, she sighs in relief and turns the TV off. The teenagers wait a few minutes before coming out from their hiding spot.

“Zack and I really need to tell you guys about what we found,” Jack whispers.

“Well what is it?”

Zack shows them the journal.

“This is Amanda’s journal.

“And what’s so special about that?” Rian asks.

“Maybe if you would let Zack say more than one sentence at a time, you’d find out!” Jack hissed.

“Anyway, Jack and I looked through it. It starts off like a regular diary, except all she talks about is being a vampire and the supernatural. But then it takes a dark turn.”

“She starts writing about how she thinks humans are all inferior, how it’s unfair that they’re at the top of the food chain and how we have to hide the fact that we’re inhuman,” Jack explains.

“Halfway through she starts talking about this monster group she made and how she wants to put all humans in their place.”

Alex, Lisa, and Rian look at them with wide eyes. They don’t know what to say at first.

“So...what does that mean?” Lisa asks.

“Amanda thinks that monsters deserve to rule the world and put whoever stands in their way in their place, even if they have to kill all the humans in the world. And it looks like she’s already started working towards that.”


	18. Chapter 18

Zack checks the time again. Why won’t his parents just go to sleep? He has to meet the others and he can’t call them or else his parents will hear. They won’t be too mad, but still.

He pulls the covers up over his head and his hands begin to glow. He closes his eyes and tries to connect with his friends. It’s not quite like what Jack can do, and he doesn’t even know if he can do it. But he has to try.

Seconds later, he connects with Jack.

He can almost hear Jack’s thoughts and if he concentrates he can see through Jack’s eyes. It’s dark and blurry; maybe he’ll get better in time.

_Jack!_

Jack jumps but relaxes when he realizes it’s Zack’s voice in his head. Then he gets confused.

_Zack? How can I hear you?_

_I tried to connect with you and the others. Looks like it worked._

_That’s great, so where are you?_

_Still at home. My parents aren’t asleep yet._

_Hold on._

Zack tries to see what Jack’s doing, but total darkness engulfs his vision and Zack severs the mental connection. He stares up at the ceiling, but then it disappears and he feels like he’s falling. His heart races and he doesn’t have any time to scream before he lands on something.

“Fuck!”

Zack looks around and sees he’s in the forest with Alex, Lisa, and Rian looking down at him. 

“Get off me,” Jack grumbles, pushing Zack off of him. They stand and Jack brushes the dirt off his clothes.

“Give me a warning next time you do that.”

“I thought I gave you one!”

“No you didn’! You just told me to hold on and then I fell on top of you!”

“Well—”

“Guys!”

The two boys look at Lisa, who walks in between them.

“We have bigger problems to focus on, remember?”

“So what should we do?” Alex asks. “It’s not like we can tell anyone about what we found. Especially not the police.”

“We have to get some help; we can’t just stop a possible revolution by ourselves,” Lisa points out.

“Yeah, but who would help? We can’t tell our families, and the only other monsters we know are the ones we need to stop.”

Rian looks away and he looks like he’s deep in thought. His eyes brighten as an idea comes to mind and he speaks up.

“It won’t be much help, but remember that older werewolf that would help me some nights?”

“Do you really think he’d help us?”

“Maybe,” Rian shrugs. “He was friendly with me, and he knows about how I feel about you guys and my family. He never tried to come after them, or you and he did what he could to teach me. Maybe he’d be open to it?”

“It’s the only lead we have,” Lisa points out. “I say we go find him.”

The others agree, not that there’s any other options. Rian ducks behind a tree and changes, jumping out when he’s in his wolf form. Zack puts his clothes into the tree and then Rian runs off. The rest follow him.

 _Come on, come on, pick up his scent_ , Rian tells himself. In the past couple of days he could tell the werewolf had been around, maybe even looking over the teenager and his friends. If only he could find him.

“I think we’re going in circles, Ri,” Jack tells him.

Rian looks over and growls, shaking his head.

“Your clothes are in that tree!” The wolf looks to where he’s pointing and sees he’s right. He’s led them in a big circle.

_I’m not giving up._

Rian darts off again but his friends don’t follow him. He catches the werewolf’s scent and follows it. He feels confident that he’ll find the wolf again, but as he follows it to the end, he ends up back with his friends.

“Maybe the scent’s old,” Alex suggests.

“How would you know?”

“Rian’s not the only one with a heightened sense of smell. Mine’s not as strong as his but I can make out the scent of another wolf. Rian’s is a lot stronger, though.”

“The wolf might’ve moved on.”

“Or he could be….”

Rian growls at Jack before he can finish the thought and starts walking towards him. Something about the suggestion makes him irrationally mad and he refuses to acknowledge it. He can hear Lisa messing with something but he pays no mind.

“Rian, hey, I’m sorry,” Jack says, putting his hands up.

A sense of calm washes over the wolf, and he allows himself to relax. Could the older werewolf really be dead? That doesn’t make sense to him, but he does need to consider the possibility. He looks over and sees Lisa with her hand on his back. It’s glowing a soft purple color.

That’s probably why he calmed down so fast.

“It’s alright, Ri, we can find—”

Before Lisa can finish her sentence a wolf crashes through the area and she jumps back. Rian turns and sees the werewolf. He brightens up and pads over to greet him.

_Where have you been?! I was looking for you!_

The werewolf does the wolf equivalent of a smile and nudges him.

_I’ve always been around. I have to watch over you; you’re like a brother to me._

Rian’s tail wags at a quick speed and he turns to his friends. They all seem more relaxed as they come to the realization that this is the wolf that Rian mentioned.

 _Look, my friends and I need your help_ , Rian tells the older wolf.

_Alright. Tell me what you need help with._

Rian turns to the others and Lisa seems to understand. She reaches into her bag and makes something in the palms of her hands, then she presses them to their foreheads. Her hands glow and a symbol appears on her palms.

“We should be able to hear the two of you now,” she tells them.

“Ah, a witch,” the older wolf comments.

Everyone’s quiet. That voice sounds familiar, especially to Rian, but none of the teenagers can place it.

“Anyway, um, we kind of have a huge problem.”

“There’s this vampire that we know and we found out that she wants to make monsters the ones at the top of the food chain and she doesn’t care how many humans have to die for that to happen.”

The wolf’s eyes widen and he’s speechless for a couple minutes.

“Yeah, that qualifies as a huge problem.”

“And that’s why I needed to find you; we’re gonna need help if we want to stop that,” Rian tells him.

The wolf nods.

“Alright. What’s the vampire’s name?”

“Amanda Rothwell.”

The wolf freezes and his fur stands on end. Everyone tenses up at the sight.

“Oh no.”

“Oh no?” Alex repeats.

“Amanda got her views on monsters and humans from her family. In the supernatural world the Rothwell’s are well-known for spreading anti-human propaganda. They believe the world rightfully belongs to monsters and have held many anti-human rallies which have received a lot of support. If Amanda’s parents find out what she’s doing, they won’t hesitate to launch an attack on the human race.”

The clearing fills with a thick cloud of dread and horror, and it feels suffocating. Alex takes Lisa’s hand and squeezes it.

“So what would they do to anyone that wants to stop them?” Jack asks the wolf.

“They’ll kill them, just as they would to any human they come across.”

Everyone glances at each other as they share the same unspoken thought:

_Our families._

Zack poses the question no one can bring themselves to ask.

“So what can we do?”

“Gather as many allies as possible and confront the root of the problem. If we take out the leaders of the movement, the fire will burn out and it’ll lose traction.”

“Okay, so how do we get help? We’re all still pretty new to the whole supernatural part of our lives.”

“I’ll go and collect my friends and family. They can tell their friends, too. If they can reach everyone, we should be able to form a small resistance against the Rothwell’s. For all of you, you’ll have to tell your families about what’s going on and ask for their help.”

“Not an option.”

“No way!”

“Our parents have no idea that none of us are human!” Jack protests.

The wolf looks between all of them, a confused look in his eyes. He opens his mouth and he looks like he’s about to speak but then he shakes his head and moves on.

“Alright. Then the five of you will be responsible for distracting Amanda and her friends while I get help.”

“Wait, like, _tonight_?”

“Of course. Time is running out and we need to stop their movement as quickly as possible. Good luck.”

He waits for Lisa to remove the spell from him and Rian, and then he runs off. The teenagers are left in the clearing, a rising feeling of dread and uncertainty filling their chests.


	19. Chapter 19

The clearing is silent. No one wants to talk and face the reality of what’s happening. No one wants to confront it. It’s too easy not to. As long as they don’t confront it, everything is alright and it’ll turn out just fine.

But in the back of their minds, they know that they can’t just ignore it. They have to follow the wolf’s orders and help stop a revolution, as much as they don’t want to. Alex is the first one to speak up.

“We should find Amanda.”

His friends mumble agreements, but Lisa stays silent. She’s too busy thinking about Amanda’s plans. If her family really has that kind of power, they could be in a lot of trouble.  
“So how do you want us to do that?”

“Jack, can’t you find her?”

He nods.

“Okay, so where’s Amanda?” Alex asks him.

For a second his mind goes blank. Then he lifts his hand towards the shadows and lets his mind wander until he finds her.

“Okay, I think I’ve found where she is. She’s—oh fuck!”

“What happened?”

“I think Veronica found out that we’re onto them. I can’t see Amanda or her friends anymore.”

Alex groans and Rian barks in frustration.

“Hold on, I can work around that. If I can see the area around them that should work just as well. Just give me a couple minutes.”

Jack closes his eyes again and focuses his mind again. He doesn’t try to go right to Amanda, but circled around her. He tries to get a good look at the area but he doesn’t know if he recognizes it. He knows the streets of Baltimore, but the woods? No way.

“They’re in another part of the woods, but I don’t know what part. We’ll be out here all night trying to look for them.”

“How do you not know what part of the woods they’re in?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’re the _expert_ of these woods! Did you seriously expect me to have every inch of this forest memorized?” Jack huffed. “Zack, help me out, would you?”

Jack holds his hand out, his eyes still closed. Zack takes it and he knows what to do. He travels to where Amanda is and sees Veronica protecting her. He knows not to go near her. 

“Okay guys, I’m gonna use my magic to shine a light above the trees, it’s gonna show where they are.”

Without stepping out of the shadows, Zack touches one of the trees and as he concentrates a soft blue glow appears above it. Thankfully Amanda and her friends are under a cluster of trees so they don’t notice it. 

“Alright, Zack, we see it.”

Zack pulls away and opens his eyes. He lets go of Jack’s hand and looks in the direction that they’re pointing in.

“Come on,” he mumbled to Jack, nudging him as he opened his eyes. They don’t wait another minute before they head in that direction. When they get close, they hesitate. After everything they found out, they’re not exactly eager to confront Amanda and the others. It’s like if they don’t confront her, then what they found out isn’t true. And if it’s not true, then their families aren’t in any danger.

And everything would be okay.

But they don’t have a choice; Tyler notices them and growls at the shadows. The teenagers glance at each other and step into the light.

“Relax, just us,” Alex greets them.

“Oh, hey guys. I was wondering where you’d gone.” Amanda motions to Veronica and Tyler, and the two of them relax.

“What’s the human doing here?” Veronica asks.

Lisa grits her teeth and Alex has to take her hand to keep her from doing something she regrets.

“I’m a witch, you moron. I thought with your stupid supernatural abilities, you’d be able to tell.”

Alex pulls Lisa back and Jack and Rian get in between her and the others. Veronica and Tyler look like they’re not afraid of holding back on her.

“Hey, we’re not here to fight. We just want to talk and straighten some things out,” Zack says. Just in case, he’s got a few shielding spells at the ready. All he’d need is the first sign of a fight to use them.

“Tyler, Veronica, calm down. So what do you guys want to talk to us about?” Amanda asks. 

The boys look at each other. This definitely wasn’t the way they expected this to go. Then again, what should they have expected?

“So, um, what exactly do you do when you don’t hang around us?” Alex asks. The others look at him. Lisa nudges him.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” she tells him.

Everyone tenses up. The memory of what Amanda and her friends did to those people the other night runs through their minds. Zack remembers the journal and he fights back the instinct to summon it. He won’t until he’s told.

“Well, you’re a vampire and you’re friends with a demon and a werewolf. We don’t really know what you three like to do in your free time, although we have a couple ideas,” Jack explains.

It’s Amanda’s turn to tense up. She plays it off like it never happened, but they caught it. Veronica and Tyler move to her side as if to protect her.

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

The boys glance at each other, and without saying anything Zack understands. He summons the journal but he doesn’t show them yet.

“Okay, well. Do you mind if we ask how you feel about humans?”

Amanda tenses again, and so do her friends. There’s no hiding it this time.

“What are you getting at?”

Zack shows them the journal. Amanda looks confused at first, then realization crosses her face.

“Where did you get that?”

“Take one guess.”

Amanda clenches her fists.

“Give it back. You were never supposed to see that!”

“Yeah, we understand why. There’s some pretty awful stuff in here about humans and what you’d like to do to them,” Zack points out. “What this doesn’t mention is how your parents have been having anti-human rallies, or the power they’ve been gaining in the supernatural world. Looks like they passed their anti-human views down to their perfect daughter, huh?”

She takes a step towards him but Zack raises his hand. A shield appears over him and his friends. Even through the shield they can see how her eyes have gone a rich red color, the way Alex’s does when he needs to drink blood. Zack opens the journal with his free hand.

“Man, you just go on and on about how you’re waiting for your family to lead a revolution against the human race. There’s got to be a handful of entries here that talk about how you can’t wait for the first human to get killed, to taste their blood and feel it drip down your face. Honestly, it’s disgusting. And you’re insane, do you know that? You honestly think monsters deserve the world? That humans deserve to die for that cause?”

“Humans are inferior! It’s their fault we have to hide in the first place! They make a mockery of us and they need to be put in their place! They can’t do this to us!”

Disgust crosses over their faces, mixed with horror. 

“Jack, think you can help us out of here?” Alex asks.

“No! Veronica’s just gonna follow us and we’ll be in the same situation.”

“So we have to fight,” Zack mumbles.

“I can protect us,” Lisa warns them, “just give me a little time.”

“Let me know when I can drop the shield!”

“Zack, look out!”

Shadows fly by his shoulder and he turns to see Veronica on the ground. They have less time than they thought.

“If you’re gonna take their side, you might as well be the first rebels to die.”


	20. Chapter 20

Zack barely has any time to react before pain shoots through his body. It’s a burning sensation and it’s quickly spreading through his torso to the rest of his body. It’s paralyzing and no matter how hard he tries, he can’t push through the pain and help his friends.

“Lisa, help Zack!”

She shoves the materials for the protection spell into her bag and looks over at Zack. She’s about to run towards him, but Veronica and Tyler block her way. Jack and Rian start fighting them as soon as they’re close enough. 

“I can’t make it over,” she tells Alex.

“Oh, what a shame. The little witch can’t help her friends,” Amanda says, wrapping her arms around Lisa. The vampire exposes her neck and keeps a tight grip on her. Lisa can’t break free no matter how hard she tries.

“Let her go,” Alex growls.

“You know, I liked you, Lisa. I really did. Even if you _had_ turned out to be human, I would’ve let you live. But not anymore.”

She doesn’t give Lisa any time to react before she sinks her fangs into her skin, then almost immediately ripping them out. The action creates a wound and rips her skin, and blood flows down her skin at a rapid pace. Alex’s eyes widen and he steps towards her. Amanda throws her body aside and wipes her mouth while Alex kneels next to Lisa.

“Lisa, hey, look at me!”

She puts a hand up to her neck and covers the wound, struggling to look up at Alex. It takes too much effort to do so.

“Hey, it’s alright, you’re gonna be fine. I’m gonna get you out of here and fix you up, okay?”

“I can see why you like her so much, Alex. Her blood’s _so_ sweet; I’m a little surprised you haven’t drained her yet,” Amanda taunts him.

That’s the final straw. Something inside him snaps and in a second his eyes turn red and his fangs come out. He doesn’t hesitate before he turns around and attacks Amanda, who clearly isn’t expecting it. Alex manages to knock her to the ground and they engage in a fight.

Even in her disoriented state, Lisa stands and heads to the edge of the clearing. It’s no easy task, she stumbles the whole way and she has to fight the urge to close her eyes and fall unconscious. While Rian and Jack fight off the others she makes her way over to Zack. She falls to her knees when she gets to his side and reaches into her bag. Her hands grab the ingredients for the protection spell and she works quickly to finish it. When she does, the ground beneath her and Zack glows and she relaxes.

“What did you do?” He asks, sitting up.

“Protection spell,” she mumbles, her hand clamped over the wound on her neck.

“Oh god, what happened?”

“Amanda. Bit me.”

Zack’s hands start to glow and he ignores the pain that comes with it. He still doesn’t know what happened to him but he can worry about that later.

“Move your hand. I’ll try to heal it.”

Lisa nods and does as he says. Her hand is covered in her own blood and she looks pale, like she’s about to pass out. Zack knows he has to act fast. He places his hand over the injury and focuses his magic on healing it. His hand burns as he does, and just when he can’t take the pain anymore he pulls his hand back. He feels relieved to see that it worked.

Lisa reaches her hands up and feels relieved to feel the wound closed up.

“Thanks, Zack.”

He nods. They both jump as one of the wolves is hurled in their direction, but because of the protection spell, the wolf doesn’t touch them, instead hitting an invisible wall. Zack stands and grits his teeth. He can feel magic coursing through him, but it’s different this time. It doesn’t feel like magic, and his hands don’t glow their usual blue color. This time, they’re black.

“Zack!”

He doesn’t turn to look at Lisa, keeping his gaze on the fights going on. They all look like they’re fighting to the death, like something inside of all of them had snapped, and his friends are losing. In a quick movement, Zack waves his hands and Amanda and her friends are paralyzed for a few seconds. He wants to make sure that they get what they deserve; it takes over his mind.

They break free of the spell after a couple seconds, just before Zack’s friends could land killing blows, and he raises his hand again but he doesn’t get the chance to cast another spell; Lisa tackles him and prevents him from getting up.

“Get the fuck off of me!”

“No!”

“They need to fucking die, Lisa!”

“Zack, look at yourself! Look at what they’re making you do!” She grabs his hand and shows him. His eyes widen a bit when he sees how his hand is glowing black instead of blue. 

The spell over him is broken. He closes his eyes and concentrates and the glow goes away. When he opens his eyes he relaxes and Lisa pulls him back into the protection circle. All they can do is watch the fight that’s going down.

Tyler and Rian jump at each other and scratch and bite like they’re trying to kill each other. Veronica uses the shadows to hide herself and she lashes out at Jack, creating deep wounds. Some of her blood flows into them. They look towards Alex and Amanda. Their fight is easily the worst.

At first glance, Alex seems to have the upper hand. But as the fight goes on, Amanda lands blow after blow and causes more and more pain for him. She’s more skilled than he is. Her friends are more skilled than they are; they’ve known what they are for their entire lives. Alex and his friends have only known for a few months. It’s a miracle that they’ve lasted this long against them.

Lisa and Zack jump when Tyler throws Rian in their direction and he hits the invisible wall. Zack creates a shield over Rian, his hands glowing blue again, but the shield wavers. They only have a few seconds to react. Lisa pulls the wolf into the circle.

Jack and Alex don’t fare any better. Veronica and Amanda get the upper hand and Jack and Alex fall to the ground. The girls look like they’re about to go for the kill, but a howl sounds through the air. It unsettles Amanda and she motions for her friends to leave. Veronica and Tyler hesitate but follow after she urges them to follow her. Then they’re gone.

Zack and Lisa want to get up and check on the others, but they stay where they are for a few seconds. They have to make sure that they’re really gone before they can do anything.

Rian doesn’t give them much of a choice, though. He jumps to his paws and turns to Zack and Lisa, teeth bared and fur standing on end. There’s nothing in his eyes, almost as if he’d lost his connection to his human side.

“Rian, hey, it’s us! Lisa and Zack! We’re your friends, remember?”

“Ri, we’re in a band together! All Time Low. You’re the drummer, I’m the bassist. We play shows with our best friends.”

Rian stops and they can see his spirit return to his eyes. He shakes his head and whines as he realizes what he was about to do, his fur going flat once more. He lowers his head as an apology and Zack and Lisa pet him.

“It’s alright. Let’s check on the others.”

Lisa stands, taking a second to make sure she won’t fall over before making her way over to Alex. Zack grips the wound on his stomach as he and Rian walk to where Jack is.  
Lisa kneels beside Alex. His breathing is heavy and as soon as she gets close to him he stiffens, like he needs to hold himself back. From what, she isn’t exactly sure.

“Alex,” she murmures, stroking his cheek. He leans into her touch, then turns away. He sits up and holds his head in his hands.

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t—something’s not right.”

“What is it?”

He shakes his head.

“I’m craving blood.”

“But you already—”

“It’s worse than that, Lisa. Like, I feel like I have to drain you.”

Lisa nods, and as much as she doesn’t want to, she backs away from him. She makes a silent promise to help him when she gets her strength back.

Meanwhile, Zack helps Jack stand up. Jack’s skin is cold, and Zack has to get past the surprise. Jack’s usually so warm, despite being a demon. So this is concerning.

“How are you feeling?” He asks.

“Awful. Cold, empty. Not human. I hate this feeling.”

Zack nods.

“I think I know what you’re talking about.”

The warmth starts returning to Jack’s skin, but it doesn’t happen all at once. It’s gonna take some time to go back to normal. Or as normal as it can get for him.

“I think we should start heading back,” Jack says once they’re all gathered together. Everyone silently agrees and they start walking in the direction they came from. They don’t ask Jack to take them home; the fight affected him, and he doesn’t want to use his powers until he feels like he’s returned to normal again.

“So how do we get home?” Alex asks as they return to the clearing where their night started. Rian darts behind a tree and grabs his clothes from the branches. He changes and steps out to join the others. They can see the wounds he got from the fight littering his exposed skin.

“Jack, can’t you—”

“I _could_ use my powers, but I don’t want to just yet. I’m still not feeling quite like myself and I don’t want to end up hurting you guys.”

“What about Zack?” Rian asks.

Zack shakes his head and lifts his shirt. He’d found the source of the wound a few minutes before they got back to the clearing. The wound in his stomach looks like a black stab wound, and it looks like the wounds Veronica was creating on Jack. Small trails of black blood branch out in different directions.

“This is affecting my powers. If I use them, I don’t know what could happen.”

“Once we get somewhere private, I can remove that. It’s demon blood.”

“Wait, didn’t you get that stuff in your body too?”

"Yeah, but I’m a demon. It’ll hurt and affect my powers a bit, but soon my body’s gonna get used to it. Zack’s not a demon, so he doesn’t have that luxury.”

“Alright, now where do we go?”

Everyone stays quiet, then Rian speaks up.

“I think if we head in this direction, there’s a hotel a few blocks from the entrance to the woods.”

“Does anyone have money?”

Lisa reaches into her bag, and to her relief she finds her wallet.

“I do. I have my cards in here.”

No one says anything else, and they head for the hotel in silence. It hasn’t been a good night for them.


	21. Chapter 21

The walk to the hotel takes less than an hour. Before they walk in, the teenagers make sure that they don’t look bloody and wounded and Jack gives Rian his jacket to cover up the scratches on his arms. Lisa checks over her ID and uses her magic to change the year on it. Then they head inside. 

Lisa checks them in; they get lucky for the first time all night. They made it to the hotel a few minutes before the check-in cut off. She manages to book them a double room.  
As soon as they walk inside, Alex and Rian take one of the beds and they fall asleep. Jack and Zack head into the bathroom while Lisa settles on the other bed. She can’t help but worry about Alex.

Meanwhile Jack closes the bathroom door. Zack lifts his shirt up and Jack inspects the wound again. He lets his fingers drift over it. Unlike what it did to him, the demon blood makes Zack’s skin warm, almost overheating.

“You said you could get it out?”

Jack nods.

“It shouldn’t take long, but it’ll be painful.”

“Will my powers go back to normal?’

“Just about, yeah.”

Zack takes a breath and nods.

“Alright.”

Jack closes his eyes and touches the wound. The blood isn’t quite as easy to control as a shadow, but it’ll still work. He’s about to remove it when Zack stops him.

“So, uh, how are you feeling now?”

“What?”

“You heard me. You got this stuff in your body too.”

“I’m fine, going back to normal. Still a little stressed about Amanda.”

“Yeah, she sucks—”

“Zack, I have to get this demon blood out of you or you’ll never go back to normal.”

“I know, I know, I just…” he takes another breath, “I’m scared.”

Jack stands and puts a hand on Zack’s shoulder.

“I understand. It’s not like we ever had to deal with something like this before. This is gonna hurt and you’re gonna feel a lot of pain, but once the blood is out, it won’t affect your powers or your head anymore, and you’ll be better off.”

Zack nods and Jack touches the wound again, closing his eyes. Once he has control over the blood, he slowly pulls all of it out. Burning pain shoots through Zack’s body again and he holds onto the counter to keep himself from falling over. Jack disposes of the blood and holds Zack up with one arm. Then he leads him out to sit on the bed.

“Did it go okay?”

“Fine,” Zack groaned.

“He’ll be in pain for a while but then he’ll be back to normal. Why don’t you try to sleep, the pain should be gone in the morning, Zack.”

“Wait, before you do I have something that should help.” Lisa hands him a glass, of what he doesn’t know. It’s glowing purple and it doesn’t look like anything he’s had before.

“What is it?”

“It’s supposed to be a healing tonic.”

“Supposed to be?”

“Give me a break, I’ve never used it before and I’m running low on supplies. I’m doing the best I can.”

Jack puts his hands up and settles himself on the bed. The mattress is soft enough that he nearly falls asleep as soon as he lays back. Zack drinks the tonic while Lisa wakes Alex and Rian to give them their glasses.

Almost as soon as the drink bits the back of his throat, the pain starts to dissipate. He sets the glass on the nightstand and gets comfortable on the bed. He falls asleep once his head hits the pillow.

Lisa turns out the lights. The boys are all asleep, except for one.

“Lisa?” Alex asks softly.

“I’m alright. Just get some sleep, alright?”

“You’re not coming to bed?”

Lisa feels shocked, but happy at the question. He’s been keeping her at arm’s length since the fight.

“You want me to come to bed?”

“Yeah. I’m feeling better.”

Lisa smiles and walks over, getting into the bed beside him. Alex wraps his arm around her waist and keeps her close to him. She lays her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes. They fall asleep soon after. 

* * *

The teenagers are woken up the next morning by a dog howling outside their window. Rian’s the one to get up and open the window, seeing the older werewolf calling to them.  
“It’s the werewolf,” he tells the others. Everyone gets up and Lisa heads down to the front desk to check them out of the room.

The boys rush outside, heading around the building to find the werewolf. Rian’s the one that gets to him first and greets him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He asks the wolf.

The wolf responds, but the others don’t know what they’re saying. After a couple of minutes the wolf leaves and Lisa joins them.

“What happened” She asked.

“The werewolf said he’s got help and they’re gonna make their move tonight. All we need to do is prevent Amanda and her friends from joining up with her parents. That should give them enough time to dismantle them.”

“So how are we gonna find them? Veronica can just cover their tracks and make it so that we can’t pinpoint them.”

“How do we _fight_ them? It didn’t take them much to take us down last night. They would’ve killed us if they hadn’t gotten spooked,” Zack points out.

No one has an answer for a few minutes. Lisa checks her bag but she doesn’t have enough supplies for anything.

“I need to stop by my house and get more supplies. I think I may have a spell that can protect our spirits so that they won’t tap into your dark sides again.”

“I’m gonna have to check my guidebook for a spell like that too,” Zack says.

“So other than those spells, we’re basically on our own. Great.”

“At least we know what we’re up against now.”

“So, how are we gonna find them again?” Rian asks.

They stand in thought for a few minutes, then Jack speaks up.

“Rian, can’t you track the smell?”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna need something of hers that has a strong scent.”

“Would her journal do the trick?” Zack asks him.

“Definitely!”

Zack looks around, then summons the journal behind his back, then hands it to Rian. He sniffs the journal, then lowers it, focusing. Then he motions for them to follow before he starts walking in a random direction.

Hours later, Rian, now in his wolf form, leads the four others to the abandoned house where Amanda and her friends are. They wait outside for a few minutes while they try to come up with a plan. All they really need to do is distract them and keep them from getting to their parents at the head of the revolution.

“So what’s the plan?” Lisa asks them.

“Jack is gonna get us inside. Once we’re in, Zack is gonna use his magic to make sure they can’t get out, and after that he’ll use his magic to attack whenever one of us is struggling. I’m gonna take Tyler, Jack will fight Amanda, and Rian’s gonna go after Veronica. Thanks to the spells from you and Zack, they shouldn’t be able to affect us like they did last night.”

“And what should I do?”

“You’re gonna stay out here. If they manage to get out of there, you rush ahead of them and let the werewolf know and then stick with him in the fight. We’ll be right behind them.”

Lisa nods and her hand moves to the sheathed blade connected to her belt. She knew to use it if she had to. She and Alex share a quick kiss, then shadows engulf them and they disappear.

Jack doesn’t allow the others to step out of the shadows just yet, wanting to make sure that Amanda was still in the house. To his relief, she was, along with her friends. From the shadows, Zack uses his magic to block the doors and windows. He’s still healing from the demon blood so he doesn’t dare to use a ton of magic all at once. Then Jack steps out of the shadows and the others follow.

The boys don’t have to say anything before Amanda and her friends notice them, and the fighting starts again. Zack jumps out of the way and stays on the sidelines while the others get into their places.

Tyler jumps, and Alex uses his speed to dodge and land a couple hits on him. Amanda tries to hit Jack, but he uses the shadows to dodge, and she can’t keep up with his hits. Rian uses his sense of smell to locate Veronica before she attacks him and dodges them. He lands some bites of his own on her. Zack picks up wherever he needs to and prevents his friends from getting hit.

Everyone fights like they’ve been doing so for years. Occasionally one of the enemies will land a hit, biting them or sending them into the wall or the floor. But then the boys will make a series of attacks in response. They do more damage back than what’s done to them.

For the first few minutes of the fight, it’s looking to be in their favor, and the boys actually think that they may have the upper hand in this fight.

And then moments later, they lose it.

With one wave of her arm, Veronica paralyzes them and the boys fall to the floor. Zack manages to keep his magic going and keeps the exits blocked. When they recover, they’re weakened. Amanda and her friends take the opportunity to attack and leave them blooded and wounded.

“Now this is just pathetic. Four supernatural creatures, turning against their own kind, and for what? To protect the human race?”

“Oh god, you’re seriously doing the villain speech thing?” Alex groans.

Amanda steps forward and grabs his chin, making him look at her. 

“The four of you are pathetic and traitors to your kind. You don’t deserve any sympathy. But I guess it’s pathetic of me to give that to you.”

The boys glance at each other, not knowing where this is going. Zack’s magic wavers for only a second, but that’s just enough time for Veronica. The room is engulfed in shadows and the boys are transported to another building. It takes a second for them to realize where they are. A group of adults glare down at them, and the boys feel small under their gazes.

“My parents, on the other hand, don’t show any traitors sympathy,” Amanda says, grinning widely.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking 2.5 months to update lol, I wasn't in a good headspace. If I'm able to, I should be able to finish this story today

Lisa bites her lip paces around outside the house. She can’t hear anything that’s going on inside, and now the sun’s about to go down. The boys went in while it was still light out.

_taking them so long?_

Her mind instantly races with the worst possible scenarios, the most prevalent being that they were killed. She wants to reject the thought, pretend like she doesn’t have to consider it. But she does.

Amanda and her followers are powerful; if she really wants something, it won’t take much for her to achieve it. And Amanda really wants to put the human race in what she believes to be their place. If the boys can’t stop her, and her family and all their supporters, the world as they know it is doomed.

Lisa shakes her head as she refuses to entertain the thought. No, she won’t think about it. The boys will find a way to stop them, and everything can go back to what they’ve come to know as normal.

She needs to believe that.

Lisa walks up and looks through a window. Her eyes take a second to adjust, but when they do, all she sees is an empty house. Panic courses through her.

“Fuck!”

She backs away from the house and runs, but she doesn’t know where to go. They could be anywhere. How would she ever find them in time? The answer is she wouldn’t, and tears welled up in her eyes at the thought.

“Goddamn it,” she mumbles, stopping to wipe the tears from her eyes. She keeps trying to get her mind off what could be happening to the boys, but to no avail. The tears keep forming and she can’t wipe them away fast enough.

Lisa starts to feel like she’s being watched and she looks around. The street’s empty and the houses on the other side are all abandoned. At least, she thinks so. Then she hears movement behind her and she turns around.

“Oh, thank god,” she mutters. It’s just the werewolf.

He pads towards her and nudges her hand, as if to ask what she’s doing there. She kneels and pets the wolf with one hand while the other wipes her eyes.

“The boys and I found Amanda and her friends at an abandoned house. They went into to fight them and keep them from joining their parents, but that was hours ago. I just checked the house and they’re not in there, and I don’t know where they could be!”

The wolf doesn’t do anything for a couple seconds, then backs up and sniffs the air. Lisa stands and watches. He looks back at her, like he’s expecting something, and she figures that she needs to follow him.

So she does.

* * *

From the second they transported out of the abandoned house, the boys knew they were fucked.

They could hardly handle fighting Amanda and her friends. It’s not a surprise to them that fighting off their parents, and an actual army of monsters, is no small feat. Even as the fighting started, the four of them share one chilling thought:

_We might not make it out._

They try not to focus on that possibility as they scramble to dodge the first attack. Zack creates a shield around each of them, which prevents them from getting hurt, but they’re unable to properly defend themselves.

“How are we supposed to fight from in here?” Alex asks him.

“Well what did you want?! For me to let them kill us?!”

A flash of darkness catches Zack’s eye and before he has time to react he’s knocked to the floor. Pain shoots through his head and it’s enough to lower his defense. The shields around the others dissipate and they once again jump out of the way of oncoming attacks.

Jack tries to sneak over to Zack’s side, using the shadows as a cover, but the older demons notice. They knock him backwards and he can feel blood dripping down his face. He doesn’t have enough time to react before he’s hit again and again, pain shooting through his body time after time.

 _It’s hard to believe a demon can feel this kind of pain_ , he thinks, only for a moment.

He puts his arms up to protect his face, hoping that it’s enough of a distraction. He tries to duck back into the shadows, wanting to head over to Zack and protect him. Once again, he’s unsuccessful. They pull him back and strike again. More black blood runs down his face.

Jack knows he’ll never make it over to his friend at this point. If he can’t break away, then he can keep the demons distracted so they can’t break off and hurt Zack. 

Meanwhile, Zack is able to get up. He creates a shield over himself so he can recover in peace, but he doesn’t hesitate to start trying to help defend the others. As one hand holds the shield around them, his other hand casting spells to help strengthen his friends’ attacks. It works—the next few strikes from the others land some real damage on the older monsters.

But the magic is different this time. Instead of being it’s usual blue, the color of the magic is black.

Zack feels panic course through him and he gets distracted for long enough for Veronica to lash out at him again.

Rian notices, and he manages to break away from the fight he’s in to defend Zack. He pushes him out of the way and glances at Veronica, a feeling of satisfaction running through him when she gets toppled over by the wolves chasing him.

“Look out!”

Now it’s Zack’s turn to shove Rian out of the way. He doesn’t have any time to create a shield around them before getting stabbed once more. Pain shoots through his chest as he drops to the ground, paralyzed.

“Zack!”

Jack winces as he’s hit again, a hit landing in his abdomen. He doesn’t pay much attention to it as he tries to break away and head over to him. Each time he does he gets dragged back into the fight. It causes something inside of him to snap—his anger and fear culminate and he finally unleashes it in the form of a blast of darkness. It stuns the others long enough for him to recover and start limping over to where Zack is.

After one step, an overwhelming burning sensation overtakes Jack’s body, and he finds it difficult to keep himself conscious. Nevertheless, he continues on, and manages to limp over to Zack’s body.

“Zack—Zack, come on,” he mumbles, shaking him in a gentle manner. The action causes the burning to get worse in his hands and arms and he has to pull them back. Jack is too distracted to notice Alex and Rian circling around the two of them in a protective manner.

“Oh, come on, boys. Give it up. It’s not like you have any chance of winning,” Amanda says. She looks to her parents and they wave their hands and the other monsters take a step back, waiting for another order. 

“What, is this you giving us another chance to join you and let the human race be wiped out?” Alex snaps, eyes red and teeth grit.

Amanda nods.

“You’re fucking crazy.”

“ _We’re_ the crazy ones?! Humans have gone out of their way to hunt monsters down, to demonize us and kill us off! They will never accept us! This is the only way!”

Murmurs of agreement come from the crowd.

“But it’s _wrong_! Don’t you see what hypocrites you’re being?”

“Amanda, darling, this is useless. Let’s just throw them to the others and get on with our plans,” a woman—probably her mother—says.

“No!”

A new voice catches everyone’s attention and Alex and Rian turn to look where it came from. They feel surprised but relieved to see Lisa. She runs over and stands in between Alex and Amanda.

“See, the problem with killing my boyfriend and our friends is their families are gonna be looking for them, and that’s a few loose ends you don’t want to keep unwrapped, right?”

“Amanda—”

“It’s fine, Dad. She’s a witch,” Amanda says as she waves her hand in a dismissive way. “You really care about these...you care about them, don’t you, Lisa?”

“Obviously.” Lisa rolls her eyes like it’s the dumbest question she’s ever been asked.

“Then would you _please_ explain to them why it’s better to give up this fight? You’re smart, you have to know that there’s no use fighting it.”

Lisa just stares at Amanda for a second, then glances back at Alex and the others. His expression is begging for her to not give in, to stay on their side. The behavior of the monsters surrounding them leads her to believe they’ll tear them to pieces if given the chance; Amanda _is_ right about that. It would be safer for them to join the revolution, however fucked up it is.

“I don’t think I can, hon. See, I agree with them, and I would rather die than join the likes of you.”

Alex takes her hand in his, fighting back a smile. Amanda, however, doesn’t bother to hide the disdain in her expression.

“I think that can be arranged.”

Amanda looks to her parents, but more voices ring out before they can do anything.

“Not if we have anything to say about it.”

The boys—the conscious ones, anyway—look over and see their families standing at the doorway. At least, most of them. In place of Rian’s family are two werewolves, both with their fur on end and teeth bared.

Amanda’s parents are clearly surprised to see them there, but they regain their composure.

“What’s the meaning of this?!” Zack’s mom says once she spots her son. She rushes over to him, along with Jack’s parents, and they pick the boys up and examine their wounds.

“You’ll have to forgive us, Carla, but they—”

“They what?! Didn’t want the human race to be killed off? So you tried to kill them too?”

Amanda’s parents once again lose their composure. Alex and Rian feel confused as to how their families found them and how they know about the revolution or even what they are. Although in hindsight the answer is obvious.

“Are we to assume that you’re traitors to your kind as well?”

“Oh, shut the hell up, Richard! You and your cronies are the only ones that care about this damn revolution! And have you ever considered what would happen if it fails? What then?” Alex’s mom asks as she motions for her son to join her.

He starts walking over with Rian and Lisa, a magic shield appearing over them. It takes a second to realize that it’s because of Zack’s older sister. Then it all clicks for them.  
Their families aren’t human either, and they’ve always known what they are.

“And what makes you think that the revolution will fail?”

“Because they alerted us to your plans.”

Everyone turns to look at yet a different group of people. They look more official—maybe royal, in a sense—and the teenagers can tell that they’re some kind of authority figures. The leader, a woman dressed in an intricately decorated pantsuit, steps forward and nods at the parents.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Take your kids while we deal with these traitors.”

A shield separates the families from the other monsters, and the teenagers are rushed out. Zack and Jack are both rushed to their family’s cars while Alex and Rian linger behind. They’re still having some difficulty processing everything.

“I don’t understand,” Alex mumbles. “How did they even find us?”

“Well, after a while I noticed you guys hadn’t come out of the house, so I checked and saw it was empty. I ran into the werewolf, and he brought me to where your families had gathered, and then we all found you guys here.”

“So then who were those other people?”

Lisa bites her lips as she tries to figure out how to explain it.

“That woman that told us to leave, she’s the...I don’t quite know, president, I guess? Of monsters. She’s responsible for making sure humans don’t find out about us.”

“God, all of this is making my head spin,” Alex says as he lets go of her hand.

Lisa nods.

“I know it doesn’t all make sense yet, but your parents can explain it better. When you’re up to it.”

Alex nods and takes a deep breath.

“Let’s just head home for now.”


	23. Chapter 23

Towards the end of the school year is when everything finally starts to feel back to normal. All the boys had some nightmares about what happened, and Zack and Jack had some physical wounds that lasted for months. 

But now that they all know that their families understand what they are, they acted like a support system and helped them all work through what happened. The physical scars even started to fade.

Of course, they were given a lot to process in such a short amount of time: they found out they’re not human, and barely had any time to adjust to their new lives before being confronted with a life-threatening army. Rian felt a little shocked to learn that his older brother, Chase, was the werewolf that helped them, but it also felt like a relief. It was one less thing to worry about.

During summer break, the boys and their families got together to finally answer the questions that had been bugging the boys as soon as they found out that they weren’t the only monsters in their families.

There’s a nervousness that fills the air, but they go ahead with it anyway. They’re all about to get the answers they’ve wanted for the past six months. 

Lisa joins them, even though her family has known about her being a witch the entire time. When she gets there she goes to Alex’s side and takes his hand in hers. He interlocks their fingers between one another, then they take a seat on the couch with the others.

Their parents drag their feet in walking back out to the living room; they want to put off having to answer their questions for as long as they can. Not out of fear or wanting to hide the truth, but out of guilt for not talking about it sooner.

But they do finally head to the living room and they make themselves comfortable. None of the parents or siblings are really ready to discuss something like this—which is why they shouldn’t have waited this long to even tell them what they are. After a couple minutes, Alex breaks the silence.

“So are you gonna explain why you never told us what we are, or...?”

The parents glance at one another and his dad nods. He takes a second before speaking.

“The truth is, by the time all of you were born, we’d already made our lives in the human world and adjusted to not being open about what we are. Because we were so subtle about it, and because we didn’t encourage that side in any of you while you were growing up, we didn’t feel the need to bring it up. We thought that if we kept it hidden, it would never show up in any of you, and you might actually be able to lead normal lives.”

There’s a silence that fills the room. The answer makes sense, but it also leaves the teenage boys unsatisfied. It’s not enough.

“Why wouldn’t you just tell us when we were young and teach us about it? Wouldn’t that have been better, so we could control it better?” Zack asked them.

“Honestly, because we’re ashamed of what we are. Maybe it was because of the monster propaganda we grew up with, maybe there’s more to it, but we wanted to be human. To blend in with them, and live our lives like them. So when we saw the chance to raise you as if you were human, we took it. We know it wasn’t right to hide this from you, and it’s probably caused more harm than good, but we thought we were doing what was best for you.”

The boys glance at one another. Everything they’ve said makes sense, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s...right. Or fair.

Their families let them get some air a few minutes later. The teenagers head into the backyard and for the first few minutes none of them break the silence. Then Lisa finally does so.

“You guys don’t seem very happy. You didn’t ask many questions either.”

Alex shrugs; the others don’t have much to say.

“It was just underwhelming, I guess. It’s not what I expected, anyway.”

“Then what were you expecting?”

He takes a couple seconds to think about it before answering.

“Something more, maybe? I don’t really know how to put it, but it just doesn’t feel like that explanation was enough.”

Lisa nods. Jack, Rian, and Zack murmur in agreement.

No one speaks after that.

Jack looks out the window on the drive home. The part his parents said earlier, that they were ashamed of what they are, it keeps bothering him. Sure, he wasn’t ecstatic to find out that he’s a demon, but he adjusted and learned what he could. Now he can’t imagine being human.

“Honey, are you feeling alright? You’ve been quiet since we left Alex’s house.”

“Just thinking,” he answers.

His mom nods, and she turns back in her seat. That seems to be the end of it, but Jack decides to speak up.

“Are both of you demons?”

His parents glance at each other, not expecting the question. They nod regardless.

“So, why do any of us act like humans, as if we are?”

His mom turns to look at him again. 

“That’s because we have souls.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we were created as demonic entities, we not only inhabited human bodies, but we were given human souls. Without them, we’d be evil, selfish killers. Like the textbook definition of monster.”

It takes a second for the information to really sink into Jack’s head.

“So you and dad have souls? And me and May and Joe?”

His mom nods.

“And that’s why we all care about the human world?”

“That’s right, hon.”

Jack nods.

“Thanks, mom.”

“Of course.”

Jack takes out his phone and opens the group chat. He types one thing, sends it, then continues looking out the window.

**Jack**  
I don’t know about you guys but i’m not gonna hate myself for what i am


	24. Chapter 24

_Present Day_

Alex stirs as his phone alarm goes off, reaching a hand over to hit snooze. He doesn’t want to leave the bed, and certainly not Lisa. He’d gotten back from tour the night before and he isn’t eager to head back into the studio just yet.

“Leaving already?” Lisa mumbles as she wakes.

“Not yet.”

“They’re gonna expect you in the studio.”

“So I’ll be late. They’ll live.”

Lisa turns around in his arms and faces him, a smile tugging at her lips.

“You’re really choosing me over making more music?” She teases him.

“After over a month being away from you on tour, yeah, I am. What are they gonna do, tell me not to spend time with my wife?”

Lisa smiles and fills the space between them as she presses her lips to his. They both pull back and Alex grins as he opens his eyes. Looking at her in the morning light, she looks almost like an angel. He considers himself lucky.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Another kiss, then the two of them get up. Sebastian follows Alex on his way to the kitchen, Peyton not far behind them both. The singer makes a detour to feed them. Then he joins Lisa in the kitchen.

As soon as he walks in, she hands him a cup of coffee just how he likes.

“Thanks, babe.”

He leans down to kiss her again, but it doesn’t last long. She yelps and pulls back, seeing him grinning at her with his fangs present. The tiniest drop of her blood stains the tips of his fangs.

“Have you had your fun this morning?” She asks as she lightly pushes his shoulder, then turning to make herself a cup of coffee.

“I love you, hon.”

“Yeah, whatever.

* * *

Rian can’t contain a smile as he pulls into the driveway. This is the first time he’s seen his niece since getting back from tour, and he could hardly wait to see her again. He gets out of the car and knocks on the door. It opens seconds later.

“Hey!” Chase greets him. The two embrace for a moment, then Rian steps inside.

“Wanna see the wolf cub?”

“Of course! That’s why I came.”

Rian stops in the living room while his brother goes to get Madison. It doesn’t take long and Chase comes back out holding her in his arms.

“Hey, Maddie.”

Rian’s cheeks hurt from how much he’s smiling. He takes the baby and rocks her in his arms, not being able to take his eyes off of her.

“She’s adorable.”

“You should see her when she’s in her little wolf onesie. Nicole and I couldn’t quit taking pictures of her.”

Rian chuckles.

“Not taking a page out of mom’s book, huh?”

Chase nods.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad at her, but I don’t see why we should hide it from Madison. We’re not sure if she’ll be a wolf when she gets older, but it won’t hurt for her to know.”

Rian nods.

“And where is Nicole?”

“She had to go to work for a quick shift, she’ll be back soon.”

The two of them entertain the baby for a few minutes, and soon an idea pops into Rian’s head.

“Why don’t we take a family vacation sometime?”

Chase looks up at him, not expecting the idea. It’s clear that he likes it, though.

“That’s a great idea. Honestly it’d be nice to take some time off, especially with family.”

“Wolf pack’s gotta stick together, right?”

Chase winces at the pun and shakes his head, not able to fight off a smile.

“Shut up.”

* * *

Jack knocks on the door and checks the time once more. Zack usually gets up early, most days to head to the gym.

_Maybe he’s still there._

Just as he’s about to turn and walk away, the door opens and he sees his friend there.

“When the hell did you get in?” Zack asks as he pulls him in for a hug. Jack grins and hugs back.

“This morning, I booked a flight last night.”

“Come in!” Zack steps aside and closes the door behind his friend. “We just spent all of tour together, so what inspired this spontaneous trip?”

Jack shrugged and set his bag on the couch. 

“I got back to my apartment last night, and I just didn’t feel ready to be alone in LA yet.”

“And you decided to fly to Hawaii and spend time with me over Rian or Alex,” the bassist finishes. He doesn’t feel annoyed though; in all honesty he doesn’t mind the surprise visit, and he understands where Jack’s coming from.

“Exactly. You won’t mind if I ask for something to drink, right?”

“No problem.”

Zack walks to his fridge and opens it, grabbing a bottle of water and tossing it to Jack. 

“So how’s the recent magic practice going?” Jack asks him before taking a sip of water.

“Pretty good. Course I practice more than every few weeks.”

The guitarist raises a hand defensively.

“Hey, not everyone’s something cool like a sorcerer. Some of us are demons and are gonna terrify everyone if we get caught.”

“Get caught doing what, sneaking into the shadows so you can find some place to masturbate?”

Jack tries to hide a smile and averts his gaze. 

“Alright, you know what? Go fuck yourself.”

“Is that what your brain told you on tour?”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Jack pushes Zack, but they’re both smiling.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. What do you say we head out onto the beach for a while, take our mind off things?”

“Sounds great.”

And with that, the two of them walk out the front door, both of them feeling a little better since getting home. They definitely didn’t hate that.


End file.
